


Clarity in Instanity

by Nikki_M_Tiger



Category: Homestuck
Genre: All OC - Freeform, Drama, Multi, Normal Session, Romance, Some Cursing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4787963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikki_M_Tiger/pseuds/Nikki_M_Tiger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when a game turns 12 teenages worlds around? A mysterious birthday gift and an unfortunate turn of events lead our heroes into a turbulent adventure full of action but also betrayal. A feud will pit friend against friend, lover against lover, and blood against blood. (Complete OC, also slight rule bending with game)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Homestuck FanFic and the first I have ever posted on AO3, this story was originally intended for a few IRL friends but they all loved it so I am posting it here! Please enjoy.

Everyone has a set routine they like to follow. You wake up, you get ready, and then you go to school.  
You see the same people with the same faces and same attitudes they have every day. The same boy is still the class clown, that super popular beautiful girl is still as bitchy as ever, and finally those best friends you have had since childhood are still sitting with you at lunch.  
It gets sort of repetitive.  
I guess what I am trying to say is, we complain and complain about repetition but what if it changed? What if all that stability was gone in a few hours? What if those people no longer…existed?  
Well, that’s where our story begins.  
-

I am a light sleeper; I wake up at virtually every sound that happens while I am asleep and I will not lie, it really sucks. I was having a fantastic dream about some mystery man sweeping me off my feet but before the ‘big kiss’ my mom opened my door.

“Nicole, it is noon and you need to get up!” She beamed brightly. She was always a bright morning person and I could never understand why. I did not jump or even blink, instead I snuggled deeper into the sheets. She knew I was awake. She always did. So she just laughed and walked away.  
With a heavy groan I pulled myself up, my cat hissing in protest as she was thrown from my side that she had been curled against. I laughed a little as I reached out and stroked her behind the ears. She instantly calmed down. “I know Bella-kitty... I don’t want to wake up either.” I told her with a smile and she only purred in response.

Eventually, I realized that I did have things to accomplish today. I was almost Bryson’s birthday so we decided to have a nice little get together before because his ACTUAL birthday fell on the day of prom. We had planned a little sleepover as usual and had made other plans to have a small party beforehand, because who doesn't like parties? Boring people. That’s who.

I got up finally, my toes scratching lightly against my soft carpet. I could feel my hair sticking in different directions. Oh well. I stumbled into the bathroom and looked at myself.  
I was not unattractive, but I was no goddess. My hair was long and platinum blonde, my bangs had long grown out so it all just kind of fell straight around my head. My eyes are a whole different story. They were blue most of the time, but sometimes they were green or gray. My face was long and oval with wide doe eyes and a small nose. My chin was kind of pudgy with lingering baby fat. My body had a pretty nice shape. Not super skinny at all, but nice curves and enough weight were it counted. Average through and through!

I quickly showered and enjoyed the nice warm flow. When I got out I did up my makeup with nice tones and got dressed. I wore a pair of faded jeans and a black blouse that hung loosely with puffy sleeves and a gold necklace. I also had my best friend necklace on that I NEVER took off.

That is way enough about me though... It's not like I'm the main character in our tale!

A few hours later I am driving to my friend Brittany’s home. We would have had the party at Bryson’s but it was a bit too far away. So let me tell you about Brittany. I promise this will be fast! She is kinda rude but has a good heart, she loves cute things... but also cursing. She was not the thinnest but she was very pretty and was a very, very loyal friend. She had insanely long brown hair with deep dark brown eyes. When I arrived she just yelled some instructions and we got to work.

Skipping a lot of random filler stuff, we'd had a nice set up going. There was food and drinks and the guests all arrived on time.

The first of course being the man of the hour, Bryson. Don’t worry, he's not a main character either or anything! He was pretty average in height; he was a little skinny but was working on trying to buff up. He had swoopy dark hair that he kept up with nicely. He had pretty brown eyes and a very angular face. Bits of teenage stubble scattered across his super sharp jawline. Bryson and I were a lot alike; we both were studious and geeky in a dorky way. We cared too much about others but also snapped easily. Bryson was a bit better at expression than I was. He was also a bit more pessimistic, but not everyone sees rainbows all the time.

Bryson laughed at Brittany and I but thanked us for our effort. In time, everyone else got there. Cade, Lofton, Drew, Jason, Kailee, Mimi, and Brandon. A nice little crew I do believe, and we all knew how to have a good time.

About two hours into the party a black Lincoln rolled up, and out stepped Mark and some unknown guy. Upon seeing his friend, Bryson quickly stood up from his seat and gave a big hug to the taller boy. You see, we all saw it and I am pretty sure they did as well, but they had what I best can describe as a flirtationship. The way they looked at each other was filled with this almost knowing look and they were insanely coy with one another. It was cute and all of us agreed that the relationship was inevitable.

With Mark, was who we later learned was his cousin, Rylan. Rylan on first glance, was dark. He had dark brown almost black hair that just barely swooped down to his almost white, grey eyes. They were intense and could make anyone's skin crawl. He almost never spoke, but he had a sort of aura around him that made you not want him to because you were sort of scared of the things he might say. In short, he was creepy and made everyone slightly uncomfortable. All of us except Mark of course, who treated him like the rest of us and earned an annoyed grin from the mystery kid with each joke that was sputtered out.

The party was nothing crazy by any means; just a nice little get together with your basic party games, but it was mostly just a bunch of lame dirty jokes and genuine smiles from us all. When time for presents came down we all gave Bryson our gifts and he opened them with a lot of enthusiasm.

When all the gifts were delivered, only one was left. It was in a neatly wrapped box covered in red wrapping paper and a decorative green bow all tied around it. There was no name other than Bryson’s. We all looked at the little box confused out of our minds but thought nothing of it really, and then he opened it.

Inside there was a game, the picture was a little house made of squares and a big title splashed across, saying SBURB. I looked closely, and so did Cade and Lofton. We were all kind of video game enthusiasts and we had never heard of this title. Ever. Bryson looked at the game just as awestruck. What in the world? I decided to speak up, “Umm, okay then... Free video games I guess.” I laughed a little tensely and everyone joined an at some degree.

Upon closer examination, we learned that the game was strictly multiplayer, and that meant we were about to get dragged into this as well. With a deep sigh, Lofton exclaimed, “If it is some kind of platformer I am NOT playing it!”

I shook my head. “No. If it is some ridiculous shooter I refuse to play,” I said sternly, and Cade looked at me and rolled his eyes.  
“You guys are such prissy gamers! As long as it is sort of challenging I will be happy.” He joked and the topic dropped.

We did a little more research on the game and it was crazy inexpensive, about five dollars, but for some reason all copies were sold out except for the ones left at our Walmart. All of us promised to go and pick one up within the next week and soon, talk of said game pretty much fizzled out.

The rest of the night went about without a hitch and we all ended on a happy note. No one knew how much our lives were really changed.  
-  
About a week later everyone had a copy of the game. I had picked mine up the day after the party. I kept it all nice and wrapped up and waited not so patiently for everyone to slowly get their copies, and soon, the day finally arrived. It was Sunday morning and I had just woken up when Bryson shot me a text.

Everyone is a go, hurry up and sign on! There's like a test and stuff you have to take before you can actually play! Btw, wanna be my client player? We have to like, do this weird thing where you will control my environment, and I am sure that Lofton will be yours. ~Bryson

I looked at the text carefully, considering the implications. I wasn't quite sure what that meant but oh well, it was Bryson.

Sure! I will ask Lofton right away. I'm getting kinda excited! ~Nikki

I did not get a text back but I sort of expected that. I flipped my laptop open and looked at the disk. I'd already sent Lofton the question but I would not have to worry about her for a while.

I stared at the reflective surface of the disk… It made me feel uneasy, and if I was honest, this whole thing did. It was like something within me was yelling, no screaming! Screaming that this was a bad idea and that we should just stop now, but what sense would that make? It was just a game.

I shook my head, clearing the internal monologue and pushed my tray in, listening as my slightly outdated laptop hummed to life with the new disk. This game better be good, I had to uninstall all of my Sims content to play! As Bryson said, there was a quiz upon opening. I answered the questions as honestly as possible; they were all about me and how I acted and treated others... Things like that, and when I finished a few little red letters popped onto my screen.

Seer of Time

I stared in confusion. What was that? I didn't get much more explanation before my phone began ringing.

-

“Ugh, Nikki! Pick up your phone,” I said to myself, rolling my eyes and waiting on her to answer. I had been waiting this entire week for all of this to finally go down. My 17th birthday was a short while behind me and I was rearing to go on whatever adventure this seemed to be!

Finally the rings stopped and I heard the phone connect.

“Hey, what’s up?” she answers after at least five rings. I let out a groan of relief and I could hear her nervous laughter over the phone.

“I’m ready to start! Come on, let’s do this!” I exclaimed, almost yelling at her. She was so slow sometimes but I loved her all the same.

“Impatient as always... Great. By the way, what did your quiz say?” She asked with the weirdest tone in her voice. What was wrong with her today?

“Prince of Mind... I guess even a videogame knows I’m a prince!” I said with a smug laugh, eliciting a half laugh from Nikki.

“If that’s so, then this game might be dumber than we thought it was going to be.” She said with another half-baked laugh. I knew she'd eventually tell me what was wrong, so I dropped the subject.

“Yes. You are such a comedian Nicole. Now, there should be a little button you can use to connect to me!” I told her, simply repeating the information I had gotten offline. I could hear her shift around for a moment and move away from the phone before returning.

“Okay, sorry! Went to get myself a Dr. Pepper. Now, I can see the button but, Bryson, do you really want to do this? I am getting a really bad feeling from all of this…” She paused for a moment. “I can’t explain it, but I don’t think we should do this,” Nikki finished with a sigh.

I just laughed over the phone. “Look hun, I know you have some paranoia problems sometimes… but isn't that sort of taking it a bit far? It's just a game.” I told her. Is this what she was so worked up over?

I could practically hear her hesitation over the line. “Yeah…yeah you're right! Sorry about that. I'm stupid. Now, I'm going to click this!” She said cheerfully.

“You do that, and if you are right and all of this goes south, you can punch me as hard as you want. Okay?” I told her, just for some reassurance.

A few moments passed before I heard her gasp. “Bryson! I can see you! Oh my gosh!” She said in an overly excited voice.

I looked around. What the hell? There aren't any cameras here. How does she see me? Was this the game!? “Can you do anything?” I asked her.

She was silent; probably browsing the options she had. “This is just like Sims… I wonder...” She muttered to herself, when suddenly my dresser was gone… like, just poof! Gone.  
I just stared in shock, before slowly putting my mouth up to my phone. “Nicole Corrine. Did you just delete my fucking dresser?” I asked her as calmly as I could. I was stuck between feeling mad and feeling horrified.

“I did! I really just did! Oh my god... This is exactly like the Sims! I wonder if the same cheat codes work...” She was pretty much ignoring me at this point. I found myself just staring at the empty space at the end of my bed. Where did the dresser even go? This was some crazy stuff... I must have eaten something bad.

I was about to say something else when a little notification, yes, a NOTIFICATION, popped up in front of my face saying “+50,000 Boondollars”. At this point I stopped even trying to comprehend what was going on. I gave up… So, I opened my Sylladex (my inventory), and watched as the money grew and grew, which I assumed was Nikki’s fault. I guess cheat codes were nice.

“Bryson. This is the best game ever! It's Sims with real people. Now, I cannot directly interact with you or anything you are touching, but I can move everything else around… Also, there is some free stuff in my little build panel, so I'm gonna deploy it all.” I didn't hear Nikki, unfortunately, once I had finally caught a glance of my T.V. Apparently, some crazy accident happened in Tampa. There was a meteor that took out half of the city! I shook my head in sadness, and a bit of a chill ran up my spine. No. There's no way this has anything to do with us. That is impossible! This is just a game.

Right?

I shook my head and finally grasped what Nikki said. I ran into my living room, which was not far down our small hallway, to find my mom watching the news. She looked sad as she saw the reports and such, so I decided now was not the time to bother her with all this. I'll just have to make sure that Nikki doesn't mess anything up.

I got a text from Drew, my lovely, sweet sister, telling me that she and Jason (her boyfriend) had also started playing the game. She was over at our grandmother’s house because we decided it would be best if we were on two separate networks.

Drew was a trip. She was absolutely beautiful with long, wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes like mine. Her face was soft and she had large doe eyes that made you want to hug her. She was an eternal optimist and could argue with a brick wall. She was loud and aggressive, but really, cared for others. Even though we fought like cats and dogs, I would not trade her for the world.

This is all really trippy and we're trying to figure everything out! Just letting you know. ~Drew

I let out a sigh of relief. At least she was taking all of this well. Nikki was now yelling at me through the phone, trying to get my attention, I'm sure.

“What?” I asked, and she let out a groan.

“Have you not heard a thing I've been saying? You need to get back into your room and don't freak out... I got rid of some stuff to fit some other stuff… I also built a few new rooms to put some of the bigger machines in. There's one thing in particular called a Cruxtruder…Apparently, according to this walkthrough, you are going to have to throw something into it and then that thing will come to life.” She told me very quickly.

I walked into my room and looked around. There was, of course, no more dresser, or bookcase, or T.V...but there was a new door.  
I had a feeling big decisions were about to be made.

With a deep breath I stepped through the door cautiously and found a large machine with a pipe sticking out of it. A floating ball of light sat over the pipe. Across the room was another wicked looking piece of metal that looked almost like a desk with a little keyboard. Beside the keyboard was a place to insert something and then a whole bunch of hole punchers.

Walking further into the room there were two more devices; a big piece where it looked like a contraption you'd use to carve wood or something. Maybe it had something to do with the Cruxtruder… Last, but not least, was the largest of the new objects in my house.

It had the game logo on a large circle like platform, it was at least 10 feet in diameter and it looked like there was a place to insert something, like on the other weird thing. This was all crazy. What was this stuff and what was going on any more!? I wanted to throw something, but Nikki’s steady voice brought me back to reality.

“Bryson. I know things are weird and none of this makes any sense, but if I see you again... I get to punch you.” She said quietly. Her voice chilling me to the bone.

“Nikki… What are you talking about?” I asked steadily, but I was almost afraid to find out.

“I think we just started the end of the world…”

Before I could reply, a tiny countdown started on the Cruxtruder. We had three hours.


	2. Chapter 2

Nikki

3 Hours…

I was staring at my laptop and into Bryson’s home and on that odd little device it said we had three hours. 

And I had a pretty good idea of what happened after that, I found the old walkthrough…this game had been played before and now without knowing it, we had ended our own world. I tried to not blame myself; I mean how was I supposed to realize this would happen? How was anyone supposed to know this would happen? We weren’t, but that did not stop me from feeling some of that guilt.

I could hear Bryson on the other end, he was yelling in this weird panicked way. It was almost funny because when he got angry his voice went up like, five octaves and it was so shrill. He had always done it, and I admit sometimes I would make him mad for the soul purpose of hearing it but right now I would give anything to not.

I all sort of hit me at one, I was right! This was a terrible idea and the world was really about to end, my parents were not even home! They were on a date two hours away and planned on staying the night…tears welled up. Were they going to be okay? Even if our house was destroyed or whatever would my parents make it? I almost broke out into sobs but yet another shout from Bryson brought me back to reality.

I do this thing where I just sort of shut down my feeling for a moment, I always had and thankfully it kicked in.

“Bryson…I know that sounded bad and It is, I am not going to lie to you.” I said taking a deep breath and brushing a strand of blonde hair out of my face.

I could hear him inhale deeply, I wondered how he would take this? I mean this was sort of a big deal. He took a few moments and I have no idea what could be running through his head. I was about to say something else but he finally spoke up.

“Nicole, what do we have to do now….I got a few texts and almost everyone has started playing. A few people stopped replying, like Drew and Jason…I think we are one of the last…we need to hurry, there are a lot of explosions around here. Mom is freaking out but for the most part she is staying put.” He said evenly and as he finished I looked down at my phone and there was a text from Lofton, she was ready.

I can’t really explain it, we all just sort of knew that really getting into this game was our only chance. It was like a voice in the back of our heads telling us that if we did not, then it was really game over. That made up move and yes it was sad but no one had time to be sad.

I pulled up another tab in my laptop and gave Lofton the same instructions I gave Bryson except she was going to be the one in power. After a few minutes I could feel something shift in my atmosphere. Lofton got added to the call.

“Nikki, I don’t wanna scare you but there is some freaky stuff going on around your house, and mine, and everywhere really.” She said in a shaken voice and I felt my heart wrench. Of course she was scare. 

I tried to make my smile heard, “It is alright Lofton, just deploy that stuff in my living room, you can delete whatever is in there. I am going to work on getting Bryson all the way through!” I said and she did not reply but I suspected she nodded her head.

I skimmed through the walkthrough a little more, apparently next was making this weird totem thingy so that Bryson would no die when his timer ran out. So that’s what we did, we used one thing to type in random codes on little cards and they made random objects until finally a nice carved piece of blue plastic looking stuff was shoved into Bryson Sylladex.

“I need to throw something in that one big thing right? The one with the countdown?” Bryson asked me. In the background I could feel Lofton moving things into place and I sighed. 

“Yep, but pick careful okay? It says it can bring dead things back…so don’t throw something you don’t want alive in there.” I warned seriously.

He contemplated for all of ten seconds, “I am going to put my me‘me in there.” Bryson said and I almost groaned. 

Of course he was, well it could have been worse. “I guess report back when you are done, apparently all that is left for you to do it put that blue thing in your Alchemizer or whatever and then something important will happen…be careful Bryson.” I told him.

He was quiet on his end for a moment then I heard him take in a deep breath, and then laugh a little, “Well… I will try Nikki, you be alright too!” He said before I heard to tone click off just leaving Lofton and I on our own.

-

Bryson

Hanging up on Nikki was hard, I was worried about her and I did not know what everything we were about to do really entailed. I glanced over at the greed circle hologram thing floating above the first device, the one that produced this blue stuff. I quickly went and grabbed my Me’me’s ashes; my mom had gone to take a nap not too long ago. I grimaced a bit, she really had no idea what was going on…oh well I guess. 

Grabbing the small urn from our end table by the front door I went back into my new device room and looked at the hologram again.

“Do I just, throw it? Or what…” I sighed heavily. A small ding from my phone notified me that Nikki had sent me the link to the walkthrough she had been getting this information from; I read through it and felt my eyes grow wide. We were going into our own worlds? And if I did not hurry up then a meteor was going to kill me. I gave a dry laugh as I clicked the phone off and felt the weight of the ashes in my hand.

Without any more hesitation I tossed the urn at the circle and prayed I had not missed because if I had it would have been a big mess. I did not hear a collision but kept my eyes screwed shut tightly out of fear of disaster.

When I did not hear a sound for a good five minutes I finally allowed myself a glance at my new creation.

It took me a second to take the thing in front of me…it was defiantly my me’me; she smiled at me and waved a bit. I just sat there, flabbergasted really. My me’me that had been dead for a while now was just there in front of me. Now yes she did look like a ghost with no legs and she was wearing what she had been buried in which was sort of creepy.

“Bryson it is rude to stare, and if you keep your mouth open you will catch flies.” Me’me said with a laugh and it just shocked me even more, what the hell…

Me’me looked around for a moment then made a ‘tsk’ sound and wagged her finger in my face. Her own elder grandma wrinkled face was scrunched into a frown, “Bryson, you need to get moving boy and help that other Mark fellow so he can enter his session! Then you will need to wait for that Nikki girl to get into hers, then you can go.” She explained and all I could really do was nod. So after a little bit of maneuvering with Mark (He took the whole end of the world thing sort of hard) I finally realized everything we had to do! I had gotten Mark safely into his session by going through the steps Nikki and I had already gone through but this time he alchemized the right grist thing and when he activated it he and his house disappeared right as a meteor hit and I could no longer see him. I had freaked out for a moment but then I got a text from him confirming that he was alright and that I should defiantly hurry into the real game.

I knew that I could not go in yet, so Me’mesprite and I sat in my device room, I had started playing a little with the Alchemizer and made a few neat things, nothing of real importance, I merged a watch and my phone which made it easier to reply to people who were texting me like crazy. Everyone was sort of freaking out but they were figuring things out as they went. Many of us had prototyped our Sprite, Cade with his Joker keychain, and Brittany with her dad which was a sort of emotional thing. We also had begun to think about our strife specibus’s. Me’mesprite and the other sprites had begun to explain we needed to choose weapons so I of course chosen one of the many Knives’ I had! I had always wanted to be some sort of badass knife wielding person.

Really though there was not much for me to do other than wait, I had tried to go and fill mom in on the entire situation but she was still asleep and I could not help but think that she would have a rude awakening.

I got a text from Nikki before I could get up to do whatever it was I had planned to do next.

I am about to enter…See you there okay? Remember you owe me a free punch! ~Nikki

I just smiled a little, I was scared but also excited, let’s get this game rolling!

-

Nikki

Lofton had finally entered, I was worried to death about my best friend but…I guess it was my turn…I looked over at my Sprite, it was my cat Bella because honestly I could not live without her and I knew that. I had also taken the extra step and prototyped her again with a stuffed rabbit. See my cat had separation anxiety and she licked off her fur when I left so by prototyping her with the stuffed rabbit I got for Easter she had all her fur back and her ears were bunny ears as well which was sort of cute. She could not talk like the others sprites but I had always sort of understood her anyway.

I had alchemized my entry object I guess? I had also merged my headset with my phone so that I could talk and text with ease and it did not get in the way of my weapon.

This happened to be a long sword…I had taken tae kwon do my whole life and when you got to blue belt you chose a weapon specialization and I had always wanted to learn to use a sword, so I did. Now I won’t sit here and say that I was amazing or anything in fact I was probably mediocre but it felt right to pick the gift I had gotten for graduation to black belt. 

I looked at my timer on my Cruxtruder, I had about 5 minutes. Taking a deep breath I walked around my house one last time making sure everything was in order and ready to go. Everything was right and good; I glanced outside hoping maybe my parents were back by now…they were not. 

I walked back into my back living room where all my equipment was and started clicking away, describing the exact process of entering the game in tricky it involved a lot of stuff I did not understand so I am not going to try. Just know that it was long and complicated and we had three hours for a reason! After finally getting everything settle I could see the meteor in the distance and I began to panic.

Had I done something wrong! What if I did not make it in? How would Bryson know when to go? I could have just killed both of us! I was almost hysteric before I felt a really weird shift in the air. 

It was like a pressure had descended over my entire home and outside my windows everything had gone suddenly black. The floor lurched below me and I was tossed to the ground and I smacked my head hard against a couch that Lofton had forgotten to delete. My vision swam for a moment as I tried to sit up right, but it was near impossible due to the fact that my house was actually moving!

I curled myself into a ball and Bellasprite came over and hugged me, we stayed that way for what felt like forever until finally the house just stopped moving.

I opened my eyes back up and soft light streamed in through my windows, I slowly stood up and walked over to the windows, and glanced outside.

My breath was taken away in awe but I remembered to quickly text Bryson.

I made it, your turn. ~Nikki.

-

Bryson

I heard my phone ding and jumped up, it was the confirmation from Nikki along with another text advising me to grab onto something when I went. Apparently she had knocked herself in the head pretty bad during the process.

I followed the steps same as everyone else and when my house began its flight I grabbed into the stove in my kitchen seeing it was one of the few things actually stuck to the house. I heard my mom gasp but she did not do anything else after I heard a thump. I guess she knocked herself out…great.

Me’mesprite just sort of stayed quiet the entire trip with a content smile, I guess she was happy to be with her grandson and daughter again which was nice. Although the smile thing was still kind of freaking me out.

My home stopped moving and it was very dark in my house, so it must be dark outside. I had my knife in hand just in case…I walked toward the door ready to see the outside for the first time.

I was greeted by an interesting site, the sky looked turbulent and stormy with strikes of lightning every few seconds. The terrain was rocky and my house was perched on top of a hill and the stone was blue, which was weird but stranger thing had happened today. I glanced down at the bottom of the hill, I could see for a couple of miles from this height and about half a mile down the way was a city. I could not make out to many shapes from here seeing that I was not wearing my glasses but I could tell there were little things moving in crazy patterns across the way and in-between structures which also seemed to be made of the same blue rock that covered the land.

I took a few steps out into the actual world and the air was thick and heavy but also a little chilly. I shivered a bit and began walking, may as well go check out the locals. Once I walked out I could also see a lake not far from here which was good I guess, don’t know why it would matter but it just seemed nice that it was there!

It took me maybe tem minuets of walking to reach the city, it was huge with sprawling structures and tall skyscrapers but the dust in the air made it hard to look to far into it. I learned the inhabitants were not humans but green geckos…Nobody told me that there were no people in our planets! I groaned a bit but got over it quickly. They all were milling around looking dazed and confused.

I tried to stop one gecko and it looked at me with wide panicked eyes. I was about to ask it what was wrong when a thought popped into my head, and it was not my own. It was like this tiny voice in the back of my head whispering to me. I had to help these people…they had no memories! Someone had stolen them and it was up to me to bring them back. 

That was my quest, I suddenly knew with the certainty that my quest was to retrieve the memories of my consorts and also that this land was called The Land of Electricity and Memory.

I giggled a bit and let the gecko go. I suppose now I needed to prototype Me’mesprite again, I had something in mind already and I hoped she would not be too upset.

-

Nikki

I was in complete awe of my world; outside everything was beautiful and full of life and color. There were trees that grew like the redwoods in California and the sun was shining softly overhead in an almost twilight setting so that it cast long shadows across the world. The grass was thick and lush and the name of the world came in an instant.  
The Land of Stars and Patters…I was confused for a moment but then I looked up into the sky. Even though the sun was out they sky was dim and covered in stars that shone as clearly as they would in the middle of the night. I had never seen something so beautiful before and I let a small smile cross my face, maybe this place was not all that bad?  
I took a deep breath and walked out onto the lush grass and flowers that were growing right outside my sliding glass door. I did not have shoes on at this very second and I let my toes happily squish into the ground with a little laugh. I loved not wearing shoes so this really was perfect. There were dirt paths that lead into the trees and I examined my surrounding a bit more. I was in a clearing of sorts with wildflowers all over the place that I had never seen before.

Bellasprite came up next to me and purred a bit then looked over of one of the paths and her ears flopped forward toward it. She wanted me to explore?

I shook my head and gave her a pet, I needed to build up my home and to my first gate first or at least I needed to tell Lofton to. I knew that meant that I would have to kill imps or something but that was not going to be a problem for very long. I could already see small creature poking their heads through the trees, they were black and had cat ears and a couple of other weird features that I did not really understand but they were obviously evil. I drew my sword and frowned a bit, there were not getting in my house.

-

So we reach to first turning point in our story.  
All of our players have entered the game and they discovered their lands and quests! It was an exciting time and they all forgot how bad their situation really was for just a moment.  
For some the lands were not as exciting or hospitable as others!  
Lofton had a world of Ice and she hated the cold.  
Both Drew and Brittany had lush lands that were warm and inviting but had some sort of problem.  
Cade and Rylan had dark dirty cities that were filled with either disease or violence, but the both thrived in that sort of situation.  
Brandon though got the shortest end of the stick with a land that was just a massive maze full of mirrors and random villages.  
The rest of the lands were neither inhospitable nor incredible, Mark had a swamp, Mimi had ruins and Cadmium, Jason had ruins and spires, and finally Kailee had a huge city that was warm and busy.  
They were all cautious and still trying to figure out what those test results meant, we had a Seer of Time, Prince of Mind, Thief of Light, Knight of Heart, Sylph of Breath, Witch of Blood, Maid of Life, Heir of Hope, Rouge of Rage, Mage of Void, Page of Space, and Bard of Doom.  
None of our Players realized how powerful they were and a few hours late of fighting and building, they meet again.


	3. Chapter 3

**Bryson**

We had all been working a few good hours. We had been killing the imps and doing our second prototyping.

            I picked my Sylveon plushy for Me’mesprite and while sure she was all pink and stuff now, she had really cool powers! I don’t think she minded all that much really I mean, not like she could…she was a sprite after all.

            After I had that small mess figured out I agreed with both Mark and Nikki that we all needed to go out and gain some grist. I had asked Mark what he picked as a strife Specibus and I nearly died when he informed me that he had used his trumpet…I really should not have been surprised I mean he was a musical genius. Still the instrument did not seem like much of a weapon but he got along just fine and after maybe, I don’t know three hours? Something like that. He texted me and informed that he should have enough to build up to his first gate.

            Our sprites had told us about the gates that we needed to find and access them to get to our denizen but the first one lead to another players world. As soon as we all learned that our goal was to gather in one central area and discuss our next step! The first gate for everyone was a few hundred feet above our homes and not really too hard to reach.

            I had had a lot of fun killing the small imps; I know that sounds a little off but really it was like being in a real life video game…which I guess it kind of is.

            That is all beside the point though, what really mattered was that my mother had finally woken up, I had explained to her everything that was going on and she took it surprisingly well. She agreed that she should stay in the house and try not to get to involved seeing that she did not have any real weapon at all but she would keep the house safe with whatever she could find.

            I finally had sorted out everything at home, I walked into my bed room and to my Alchemizer, I stared at the thing for a moment and got a really crazy idea. I had some left over grist from building and I sort of wanted to improve my knife.

            Without another thought I went into the laundry room and dug around for a while before finding one of those tools you use to scorch wood or even melt metal, I grabbed it and ran back and quickly punched it in with the knife and for a low sort of price or grist I had a new weapon! It still looked like the same knife but now there was a button on the handle that turned the blade red hot, which could easily come in handy at some point. I decided I really liked this thing and would have to think of more cool stuff to make later.

            Right now I was beginning to think of actually going through my first gate, I had no clue whose land I would go to but I was going to assume it was Marks. I mean that would make sense right? I shook my head and laughed at myself a little, when did anything make sense anymore?

            Me’mesprite came into my room as I stood up from the Alchemizer; she looked at the new weapon with widened eyes. “That look dangerous Bryson, be careful in the house with it! Also you need to get going if you want to see all of your friends, you are the leader and it would not be polite to make them wait.” She scolded and I just laughed a little.

            “I would not call myself the leader! I mean, not really,” I said as I checked my Sylladex making sure I had everything I would need for a while. Me’mesprite just shook her head and floated off to god knows wear.

            I began the ascent toward my gate, walking up the new levels and staircases Nikki had made for me. I never knew she had an interest in architecture but she had done a really good job creating a steady working of platforms and stairs and rooms.

            After a few minutes I was finally face to face with the little glowing green circle that represented my first gate, like everything else I just sort of assumed that I walked through it and then I would end up somewhere new. I took one last deep breath before I just stepped right through.

            For a moment I felt suspended in space, like I was just sort of floating and everything was dark. Then I felt like I was falling and below me I could see a dark green version of the logo and I just phased right through it.

            I landed with a small thud on what I can only assume was the roof of one of our friends home, I had not been prepared for the small gap between the gate and the ground but I only fell a few feet thankfully without harm! I picked myself up and dusted myself off and looked around.

            I could see for miles! The air was hot and heavy with moisture. Great Cyprus trees grew out and around as far as I could see and there was a steady sound of croaking frogs that let me know this was defiantly a swamp. I had landed in Marks world.

            I looked around for him, I walked down a few sets of stares before I heard music? My eyes darted around at the sound of the soft melody drifting up the stairs; obviously whatever was making the sound was down at the bottom.

            I took out my new knife and continued downward, along the walls were bare and white with pretty much nothing notable and there were not branching rooms and platforms like there were in my home. This was a lot more strict and sterile as far as design was concerned.

            The music stopped when I reached the bottom, finally there was some kind of decoration. The house was simple and smelled very nice! Sort of small if you ignored all the obviously added on part but really pleasant as a whole.

            I was about to enter one of the rooms when the front door opened, and in walked the owner himself Mark.

            My eyes widened a bit, he looked sweaty and worn and his trumpet hung loosely at his side in a sling that I could only guess he alchemized himself. He ran a hand up and through his short blond hair and he smiled when he saw me. Then before I could really react he crossed the short distance between and wrapped me into a tight hug.

            “Thank goodness you are alright! This is all so crazy and no one is really replying which I guess is understandable seeing that we are all trying to build so we can see each other.” He said with a breathy laugh as I just stood there a little struck.

            I had returned Mark’s hug but he had surprised me so I did not exactly catch all he had said so I just sort of laughed in agreement because I was unsure of how to reply. He let me go and stepped back, looking me over and after he was satisfied he let out a big sigh. “So, what now?” He asked with the most optimism I had ever seen a person have…ever.

            I just sorta laughed again and shook my head, “Well I guess all that is left now is to meet everyone in the middle like we planned, I think that was Jason’s world? Well anyway I think that is the plan.” I told him, we all had come up with this on sort of short notice so I was still fuzzy on details.

            When we were about to leave I noticed that there was no one in Mark’s house except him…I was about to ask but I decided against it and closed my mouth quickly, I know if it were me I would defiantly not want someone pointing out that my parents were more than likely dead.

            So without much more thought Mark and I made out way through gate by gate.

            Our first stop was Rylan’s world which I made a mental not of too never come back to, it was dark and gross and smelled like death, which I guess made sense since all of his consorts had a sort of plague that he was supposed to cure.

            Mark and Rylan reunited with a big manly hug, you know the kind where they pat each other on the back and did not make many facial expressions because if they did it would seem too touchy feely? Yeah it was that sort of hug. Rylan did not say a word to me but I did notice the shield on his back that was all covered in this black stuff, so I assumed that was his weapon of choice which kind of surprised me. Rylan did not seem like the ‘defender’ type.

            Thankfully we did not spend much time in Rylan’s world and we quickly moved on to Brandon’s. When we arrived Brandon was actually waiting for us and the first thing out of his mouth was,

“I swear this whole games fucked me in the worse was possible, it is a giant fucking maze…with mirrors Bryson, MIRRIORS…and a MAZE!” He yelled in a clearly irritated tone and it took everything in my being to not laugh at him. No one commented on the broom he was carrying with him either.

Then we were off to Mimi’s! Her land in my opinion was absolutely gorgeous! It had this kinda of dusky feel and there were these rivers of Cadmium everywhere which is absolutely awesome because they were all shiny but she was really not all to impressed.

Finally we picked up Drew, when we entered Drew’s world the first thing everyone noticed was that it was hot. All around us there were sounds of what I could only guess was wildlife but you could not see more that a few feet because of how thick the foliage was. I called out for Drew and I could hear her making her way but she sounded a bit far off, we all looked around a bit more and discovered that there were also a lot of exotic flowers and fruits but also that at the edges of the leaves and roots the plants were decaying. _This must be her quest, to bring this all back to life,_ I thought to myself.

Finally Drew poked her head through the many vines and she instantly ran to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. I held her tightly and buried my own face in her long hair, I knew she wanted to cry but she was not going to do it here in front of everyone…she was too stubborn for that. So we settled with the most heartwarming reunion.

“Bryson, is mom alright?” She asked as soon as we parted. I gave her an encouraging smile.

“Yeah, she is back at our house, she is okay and agreed it was best that she stay home,” I explained.

I could almost hear he exhale of relief and let out my own, finally we were about to get things figured out and meet up with everyone.

 

-

**Nikki**

            I had gone through the long and grueling process of picking everyone up on my side of the game, I had first stopped and got Lofton who was so happy to see me she nearly tackled me with her hug. I could understand though her world really sucked, it was all icy and barren and colder than anything I had ever experienced! She was super glad that I had come to take her out of this place.

            Along the way we picked up Kailee who was my cousin, Brittany, Cade, and then we arrived at Jason’s. It was sort of awkward I mean I knew Jason and we had spoken a few times and I knew he was a nice enough guy but I did not really like, know, him. Cade and he got along just fine talking about their muscles and such. For the most part Lofton, Kailee, Brittany, and I sat together talking about our new worlds and quests and what we thought these titles meant.

            Lofton leaned back against an old spire; Jason’s world was full of them. “I am a Sylph of Breath, whatever that means.” She shared clearly confused as the rest of us.

            Brittany nodded, “Knight of Heart” She proclaimed.

            Kailee looked a little shy, “Yours all sound cool, mine sounds evil…Witch of Blood.” She confessed and I sort of agreed, that sounded sort of dark.

            All of them looked back at me for a moment and I realized it was my turn, “Oh, I am a Seer of Time…and I am sure the boys will tell us theirs when everyone gets here.” I muttered but smiled, at least they were not all depressed, instead the two teenagers were talking about what they had prototyped, Jason was commending Cade of thinking of the Joker for his and then his dog.

            We waited only about five more minutes before the other six of our group came through the portal. Without a single word Jason and Drew ran for each other and shared a rather passionate kiss in front of all of us. I personally laughed a little, at least they had each other. It occurred to me that romance was not really an option anymore which sort of sucked…

            I did not get much time to think about it because I saw Bryson bring up the rear of his groups, he was chatting with Mark about something and I remembered a certain promise very clearly.

            I did not say a word as I stalked toward him and as soon as he noticed me he could see the malice in my eyes and knew exactly what was coming. To his credit I thought he would at least try to talk me out of it but he accepted the punch willingly.

            And punch him I did, I swung my fist back and knocked him in the stomach with as much force as I could muster, he coughed out and staggered back a little. His face was screwed up in pain and I instantly felt bad but a deal was a deal.

            He let out a few more coughs before he opened his eyes again, his hand still cradled around his gut, he looked at our friends who were not staring wide eyed and confused.

            He sighed, “It is alright guys, I deserved it…Nikki had a feeling that the game was a bad idea but I talked her into it, when I was I promised that if anything bad happened she could punch me.” Bryson explained carefully, everyone nodded in understanding and let out a sort of nervous chuckle.

            I just sort of nodded my head and looked at out group, “Alright everyone, let’s sit and get comfortable, we may be here a while…Jason would you happened to have snacks because I am starving,” I said honestly and like a good host, Jason went and retrieved chips of all sorts, cookies, and both coke and Dr,Pepper.

            I thanked whatever gods out there as I took a sip, it was no secrete I had a small addiction. We had all gotten out preferred poison and sat in a large circle, the circle was located at the base of Jason’s home and we were thankfully surrounded by ruins and spires. The grass underneath was soft and made sitting here almost pleasant as the sun shone brightly overhead.

            I let everyone eat for a moment before standing up, it was easier to keep their attention this way, “Well guys, obviously you are all filled in up to this point, Earth is gone and the only hope we have of getting out of this game is to win it. Now I don’t know exactly how to do that but I assume it can’t be too different from a real video game right? We all have quests in our own worlds and maybe if we solve that something new will present itself, a final boss of sorts.” I began. “A couple of you are already figuring out how to Alchemize things and I am sure you are noticing that we are ‘leveling up’ in a sort of way…but I think the first order of business it to figure out what those test results mean…” I said firmly and a mummer broke out among the group.

            “So I am going to go around the circle and ask what your title is, that way we can all get this is sorted out!” I told them and shared mine.

            Those we already know were repeated and we learned everyone else’s as well

            “Thief of Light,” Cade told us.

            “Page of Space,” Mark said.

            “Maid of Life,” Drew smiled a little.

            “Heir of Hope,” Jason stated

            “Mage of Void,” Brandon said spitefully.

            “Rouge of Rage,” Mimi said and laughed a little, the title seemed sort of extreme.

            I had sort of forgotten about Rylan and I jumped a little when he spoke up, and everyone else did too.

            “Bard of Doom,” He said in almost a whisper.

            We all mulled this over for a moment, contemplating what it could possibly mean before Lofton suddenly pricked up. Her chestnut hair swished a little as she stood up, “Guys! I think Liamsprite said something about this!” She exclaimed and I looked at her for a moment, Liamsprite? Suddenly I realized what she had prototyped.

            “Lofton, did you throw your Teen Wolf poster into that thing? Do not tell me you brought him to life.” I said with a laugh hoping that she was joking.

            I watched a blush spread across her face, she was not joking…

            “That is beside the point Nikki; the point is that he told me something useful!” She exclaimed, her hazel eyes glittering in excitement at contributing to this big puzzle, she took a deep breath before she continued.

            “These titles are sort of like powers, and they have something to do with another thing called god tier but he did not go into much about that…the point is that our first title is our class, for instance I am a Sylph and then our second word is our Aspect, which is sort of this thing we control which for me is Breath, which is like wind and stuff I guess.” Lofton explained carefully, “All of our titles and aspects are different obviously but I think if we start trying to do stuff and really look into it, maybe we will find that we have like…I don’t know powers?” She said shuffling her feet a little.

            We all stared wide eyed, instantly my thoughts went to my title, Seer of Time. I knew what a Seer was in like mythology and stuff, she predicted thing and toughed people and time was obvious, could I time travel? I would have to ask Bellasprite about this!

            We all sort of spit balled ideas for a while longer, well a lot longer! The sun was almost below the horizon before everyone agreed that it was time for us to return home…everyone was sort of reluctant to leave but I could feel my eye lids becoming heavy and I knew sleep was not far away.

            We all said out goodbyes and went out separate ways; I agreed to let Lofton stay with me tonight seeing that her world was so cold that her heater had broken almost as soon as she had arrived.

            “We will fix it tomorrow,” I told her.

            We sat in my room for a while, laid out across the bed and just sort of staring at the wall. She spoke first.

            “It is really gone isn’t it?” She asked me in a small voice, I could hear tears threatening to break lose.

            I could not say anything because honestly I did not want to cry, so I just nodded.

            She looked over at me and without another word she pulled me into a hug, I could feel her tears on my shoulder and I let her weep. I rubbed her shoulder carefully and let my own tears come silently.

            After some time and when our tears were spent, we fell asleep.

-

**Nikki**

            Something was different about my dreams, I woke up in my room but, everything was gold around me? I looked down and I was wearing a gold dress of all things with a little sun on it. I was confused out of my mind but I threw my legs over and on to the floor and walked to my window which had not been there before…

            Outside was even more shocking than the inside! Everything was gold like it was in my room and in the streets below I could see people mulling around and about but they were not people, they were all white and looked like they were made of some kind of shell.

            I freaked out for a moment, forgetting that this was a dream and in the process of scrambling back I fell backward and hit my head on the floor with a thud but before I could feel pain I woke up.

            I was still in my room but everything was normal now, Lofton was sound asleep beside me. I had sort of hoped that maybe things would be normal now but Bellasprite was curled up at the end of the bed, purring her little bunny ears off.

            I was going to go back to sleep, but I heard a noise in the kitchen. I got up and went to investigate, grabbing my sword in the process.

            I tiptoed carefully out of my room, making sure not to make a sound and I rounded the corner into the main living area. I nearly cried out when I saw who was standing there.

            It was myself, but not…

            She, well, me. She was standing there just waiting, but she looked older, maybe a year or so? She was also covered in blood…it was coming heavily from a wound in her side and my eyes widened, I must still be dreaming!

            She was also wearing really weird cloths; she had this red robe on with a weird symbol on the chest, a darker red hood hung down on her shoulders. She noticed me quickly and gave a weak smile, her face was covered in dirt and grime and there were tracks where she had clearly been crying. Her hair was also a mess, all disheveled and pulled back to the nape of her neck.

            She looked like a wreck.

            She fell down all a sudden, coming down to the floor and I was beside her in an instant, I caught her before she could fall onto the hardwood and I supported her head in my lap as I looked around quickly, unsure of what to do!

            She coughed a little and spoke, “I know this is sort of crazy, I remember how weird it was when the first copy came to see me I- “She stopped and coughed up a little bit of blood, I was to confused to react.

            “But you need to listen to me Nikki…I-..This is about your powers, you can time travel and that what I did but I am from a doomed timeline.” She began in a shaky voice, “I was never meant to live so I decided that I should at least help you out right?” She laughed a little like it was some weird joke.

            “I can’t tell you how to travel but I wanted to warn you, you are going to see things, terrible things Nikki and it is going to hurt but don’t be afraid…your friend can help. You-…your job is to keep them alive…” She coughed again a little harder this time. “I- I failed at that. But you can’t okay?” She almost pleaded to me.

            I was shocked and confused but I could see it in her eyes that she needed this; she needed to know that I had heard her and that I would carry out this wish.

            “Okay, I will.” I said with a sad smile.

            She almost beamed; this was defiantly me…just in not such good shape…

            I was about to look at her wound but she stopped me, “No it- its okay…I am not scared anymore,” She muttered and I just felt my own tears well up a little, she was dying and she knew it.

            I felt her grip find my hand and I squeezed back reassuringly, she would not die alone…

            I heard some shuffling from my room and Lofton walked out, still half asleep. She saw us and confusion was plain on her face but when she saw ‘me’ dying and bloody her face paled and she rushed over.

            Lofton slid down on her knees and sat beside and gabbed other me’s hand. She had almost fallen asleep but the sight of Lofton brought her back for a moment.

            I swear new tears formed in my clones eyes but these ones were happy, she let a small smile splay across her face, “I am so sorry,” She said to Lofton with a chocked sob, Lofton just patted her hand, I don’t know how she did it.

            “It alright Nikki, everything is fine…just rest alright? I will see you first thing in the morning and maybe you can cook us something alright? Deal?” She asked, I could see her tears but her voice held true.

            My clone just nodded, “Okay, that sound ni-..ce” She whispered and finally her eyes closed.

            And there in my arms, not for the last time, did I watch myself die…


	4. Chapter 4

**Bryson**

            I woke up the morning after the meeting with a serious pep in my step. I shot out of bed and to my absolute delight my mom made pancakes. Now she did not cook very often because of work and plus she just, didn’t much. Though there was no job stopping her now and what was even better, Drew and Jason sat in the kitchen already digging in.

            I sat at an empty chair across from Drew with Mom on my right and Jason on my left. They were all too busy eating to address anything at the moment. I devoured the pancakes with no remorse, they were all buttery and soft and warm and if I was completely honest, they made me feel normal.

            The gooey heaven cakes were gone in less than twenty minutes. What can I say, we were hungry people. We all sat back, just enjoying the feeling for a moment. Drew was the first to speak up.

            “So what is the agenda for today? Our little powwow yesterday was nice but nothing really got accomplished.” She stated and I had to agree but I did not really have an answer for her, what were we going to do today?

            “Well,” I began, “We all have quest right? So maybe we should take to time to explore, get to know these places again,” Suddenly an idea hit me, “How about we all go, do a little grinding then meet back at Jason’s for lunch?” I proposed and glanced at Jason to make sure it was okay with him.

            Like the good sport he was, he nodded enthusiastically.

            With that small matter settled, Drew and Jason said their good byes and took on the task of sending out the mass text informing every one of the day’s plans. I for one needed to talk to Me’mesprite.

            She had been talking to mom who was enjoying having her own mother back a lot, at least as far as I could tell. “Umm, Me’mesprite? Can I talk to you for a second, it is about game stuff,” I said interrupting some kind of joke they were telling.

            Me’mesprite looked up at me and nodded with a smile. We walked outside and sat on a jutting blue rock not far from the house, only about thirty feet at the most. “What is it Bryson?” She asked.

            I took a deep breath, “It is about all this title and power stuff? Like one of my friends said her Sprite told her a little about it, that the title is made of a title and an aspect but I wanted to ask you what mine meant because it is not exactly obvious,” I asked her.

            She seemed to mull this over for a moment; one of the many pink ribbons she now sported from her second prototyping was floating aimlessly around her head and sprite tail. She then began, “Well, I don’t want to give you all the answers but you do deserve some explanation. You Bryson are a Prince of Mind,” She told me and I nodded.

            “Now none of this really matters until you reach god tier anyway but for right now I will tell you what it is,” She said and I nodded again, there was that god tier thing again…maybe she would get to that.

            “The Prince is an active class, it means to destroy with mind, or one who destroys mind. All of the classes can go each way,” She said carefully and my eyes widened, destroying people’s minds! She giggled a bit and shook her head, “No dear, you cannot do anything as extreme as that yet! Once again you would have to reach god tier…which involves something very unpleasant, nothing you are ready for yet!” She chided with a little laugh.

            I gave a little laugh, still a little shocked at the information given; this was sort of intense I mean, I could eventually have the power to destroy people’s minds! How cool was that.

            But obviously that was not happening soon so I settled for the next best thing, “So what can I do now?” I asked carefully.

            Me’mesprite looked hesitant to tell me but I guess she finally decided, “Well you can influence emotion, it is not easy though…you will have to work to achieve your potential Bryson but you are a smart boy, you will figure it out!” She said with a smile and patted me on the back, and without another word she floated away.

-

            I contemplated the new information for a while; I had no idea how to even start with this power stuff…maybe my consorts? I tossed the idea around for a second then finally decided to go and pay them a visit.

            I made sure I had my knife and some snacks because I had no idea how long I would take. The walk was not long at all and the sky had still not changed, it was still stormy with lighting streaking across regularly.

            “It must never stop,” I said out loud to no one in particular.

            I did not encounter any of the imps on the way down, which was nice but also kind of odd…maybe they did not like the consorts? I shook the thought away and trekked one and after a short hike I arrived at the sprawling city.

            I watched the geckos for a moment as they all stumbled around, they still looked confused and I felt my heart ache for them a little, all of their memories were gone…but I did not think about it too much longer because one gecko in particular ran into my leg.

            I righted him and held on to his little shoulders, “Sorry little guy, but I have got to figure this out,” I told it apologetically.

            The gecko only stared at me with a blank gaze, it had no idea what was going on and I felt a little laugh surface, neither did I.

            I got the little gecko to sit down with a little pressure to his shoulders, we were in the middle of the street but it is not like we were going to get run over or anything, the other geckos payed no attention either as they flowed around us. I crossed my legs and to my surprise so did he.

            “Okay, little gecko, I have no idea what I am about to do so like, if it hurts make a noise or something I guess?” I said almost desperately, I really did not want to hurt the things but I did not exactly want to try this on my friends. So without another word of hesitation I focused.

            I closed my eyes and kept my hands on the gecko’s shoulders, I imaged myself reaching into his head and whipping away the confused look on his face. I have no idea how long I sat there honestly, could have been minutes or hours but nothing happened….

            I tried and tried to reach into my consorts mind but every time I felt like I was getting close, my head got this splitting pain and  my limb began to shake…maybe I just need more practice.

            I decided that is what the matter was, I had never tried this before so it was just something new and I would catch on quickly!

            As I was letting the little guy go, my watch dinged and it was a text message.

Wanna go to lunch together? Rylan already left like twenty minutes ago…don’t want to go through everyone’s worlds by myself! ~ Mark

I laughed a little, of course he did not want to invade everyone privacy. I quickly typed back a yes. I would not want to walk alone around here and if I was honest with myself, I also just kinda wanted Mark’s company. So I set off to my gate with the same little pep in my step that I woke up with this morning.

-

**Nikki**

            I was still a little shaken when the morning came, I have no idea how but I managed to convince Lofton she was having a bad dream after future me had died. I mean how else would that explain that there were two me’s right? So without much more thought she stumbled back to bed and I…I buried myself.

I would not call it sad, I mean…It was sad but it was not like I mourned. It was more disturbing that anything to know that if things went a little different that that could be me.

I pushed those thought away though, like I had told myself, I was going to see some messed up stuff but I could not let it daunt me! When I crawled back into bed, I could almost pretend it was a bad dream as well.

Lofton woke up almost in tears a few hours later, she recounted the nights events and I played the part of acting surprised and disturbed and she accepted the lie with ease, I never lied to her.

She informed me that she was going to go home and check on her brother, who was only two years younger and that she had sort of forgotten about.

When she left I did not do much, I fought off some more imps, got some more grist, played with my Alchemizer and sat around eating some left over ice-cream. Life was pretty simple, fight, create, and eat.

I was sitting in the grass when I got the text about lunch and I smiled, least there was something to look forward to today.

I also explored the small village around my home a bit; the consorts were these little blue lizards that were pretty friendly. They made this funny little noise when you spoke to them that sounded like a noise between a squeak and a hiss and it made me giggle which in turned made them what I think was smile.

-

Finally I got bored and even though it was about thirty minutes before ‘lunch’ I went ahead, Jason was probably with Drew anyway. I decided to go the opposite way this time so I went through the other sixes lands, they were not as pleasant as mine by far except maybe Drew’s.

I finally reached Jason’s land and like I expected, he was nowhere to be found. I took a moment to look around; his world looked a lot like Earth honestly, the plant life and stuff at least. The spires were the only thing that made it obvious that it was not, there were super tall structures of metal jutting into the sky at least every square mile and off in the distance I could see one more amazingly tall spire and I assumed that was the center of his planet.

I was running my fingers around the base of on of them when a voice sounded behind me, “It is not polite to sneak around people homes,” It muttered without much emotion.

I jumped a little but thankfully not enough to really notice, at least I hope not. When I looked over my shoulder, Rylan was standing there, leaning against a nearby tree.

He was looking at me with an almost bored expression, his startlingly bright gray eyes boring into me as he waited for me to speak. They were the oddest color, grayish blue like my own but his were so much…brighter. I almost forgot to say something.

“Well, it is also rude to stalk people. Obviously you have been standing there for a while, kinda creepy don’t you think?” I asked him with a playful smile, I was creeped out by him but that was no reason to be rude.

He looked surprised I reacted any kind of positively and I could see a small frown tug at the edge of his lips as he straightened, “I have been here for a while Nicole, you just happen to walk over here,” He said defensively and I took a step back, why so defensive all of a sudden?

I gave him a raised eyebrow, “Nicole? Please no one here calls me that! I mean we are all friends’ right, so you can call me Nikki. Rylan right?” I asked as I walked over to him, I was determined to show him I was not intimidated.

Rylan glanced at my hand and I kid you not, he sneered. “Yes its Rylan, but you are wrong. We are not all friends here, Mark is my cousin and I am here because of him and I will continue to call you Nicole because that is your name, not some childish nickname,” He said sternly and I could not help it, I frowned at him

“Look, I know this is all kind of shitty, but there is no reason to be so rude, I am just trying to be polite.” I told him with a sigh, and extended my hand again, this time kind of shaking if for emphasis.

            He looked at me, an emotionless mask over his features, and finally he ruefully shook my hand. I grinned in triumph but it was short lived because as soon as he touched me something in my mind clicked…

            I gasped and took a step back and stumbled a little. I felt my vision cloud a little and I could have sworn I saw little glimpses, people fighting and they looked familiar. They were both obviously male and one had the other on the ground and was standing over him with an object raised above his head. I heard a shout that sounded far away through the cloud and it called what I could only thing was something like ‘stop’ but the image was gone almost as soon as it appeared.

            My eyesight snapped back to normal, and in front of my Rylan was looking just as shocked as I was. I stared at him hard…did he do that?

            “What just happened? Did you just show me something because if so a little warning would have been nice,”  I barked, not hiding my confusion.

            He only stared longer, before a different look crossed his face, almost like understanding. “No, I think it was the other way around…you a time player right?” He asked.

            I bristled instantly, I had managed to not think about the whole power thing all morning and I did not want to bring it up now. Rylan did not take the hint, he saw my discomfort and that was answer enough for him.

            He cocked his eyebrow and let out a dry laugh, “I get it now, you saw something before this too, something that has you all on edge and your trying to understand but your just can,” He began, I was about to interject but he kept going, “I get it don’t worry, I am a doom player so already I hear these little whispers in my head you know, kind of freaky to be honest.” He said with a shake of his head.

            I just looked at him and shook my head, “Look don’t worry about my powers, and no I have not seen anything freaky,” I lied, but I was a pretty good liar, “And sorry that you have voices but I still have no idea what any of our so called powers are so if you would please just forget about what just happened that would be fantastic, thanks.” I said dryly and turned around. Where was everyone else?

            I could hear him shift around a little, “Fine, I won’t say anything but that little vision looked nasty, I mean no one here even really like me but aren’t you going to do something about it?” He asked me, his tone serious.

            I turned around and scoffed, raising my eyebrows, “And what am I supposed to do? I don’t even know who those people were! I would not even know where to start.” I sighed, but what he said hit, It was my job to do something wasn’t it?

            Rylan shrugged, “Maybe I know who they were, being a doom player means I know about people deaths before they happen and I’ll give you a hint, one of the people in that vison die.” He said quietly.

            I took a step back, he could know about people’s deaths…I struggled to find my next words, “Well if you know who they were then tell me, so I can do something! Why would they be fighting anyway?” I almost shouted. _‘I need to calm down’_ I thought to myself, I’m never this emotional around strangers.

            Rylan just sort of shook his head, “No, I have an idea about who they were but I don’t want to ‘blame’ anyone so I am keeping my mouth shut.” He said firmly leaving no room for argument.

            Unfortunately for him, I could argue with a brick wall, “Rylan this is dumb, and it is people’s lives. Please I am asking nicely tell me who you saw,” I said with a deep scowl, this guy was no the most disliked person in my book.

            He put a hand aginst his head and sighed, like I was some kind of nuisance, “Fine I will give you a hint, Cade dies at the end,” My jaw dropped in shock, I was about to continue before he cut me off. “Now before you go all nuts, I would try looking deeper into that vison, and if you tell him I told you, I am gonna tell your little friend that that copy that died last night was not a dream,” He said and I felt a chill run down my spine, how did he know?

 _‘He sees death Nikki, of course he would see that’_ I thought to myself, slowly I regained my composure, “Fine, you keep my secrete I will keep yours?” I asked through gritted teeth.

He only nodded and I sighed, we have only been here a little over twenty four hours and I am already being blackmailed.

We sat in a very tense, awkward silence before finally Bryson and Mark arrived with Drew, Jason, Lofton, and everyone else.

-

**Bryson**

            When we finally got to Jason’s world we were greeted by a really weird sight, Nikki and Rylan, alone. Walking into the clearing that we all had agreed to meet at the two mentioned were staring in silence and the tension in the air was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

            Nikki’s head shot up when she heard us round the corner and I could see the relief flood across her face, she gave me a bright smile and rushed over for a quick hug. As if she could sense our confusion she stepped back a little, “Thank goodness you’re here! I got here a little early like Rylan and we were just talking about our worlds,” She said and while I did not completely believe her but I let the topic slide, she would tell me later.

            I nodded and returned her smile in full, “We also brought lunch! Mark made some sandwiches for everyone.” I told her and she nodded and quickly distanced herself from Rylan as quickly as possible.

            I looked over at Lofton, trying to catch her eye and see if she knew what was up but when she finally did look up at me she only shrugged.

            I finally gave up and took my sandwich over to an old tree stump and began eating. I was alone for the moment seeing as everyone had sorta grouped up.

            Mimi, Brandon, and Mark were eating together and I could see Mark was enjoying getting closer to new people. Brittany, Lofton, Kailee, and Nikki sat in a little circle chittering away as they usually did; I guess Brittany took a stab at Nikki because her face scrunched up in mock hurt before she started laughing again. Finally, Drew, Jason, and Cade were all sitting together; I guess Jason and Cade were getting pretty close which was funny because Drew really did not like Cade.

            I scanned around for Rylan and saw him leaning against a tree a little off from the others, eating his own food slowly and looking around, watching. Why did Mark’s cousin have to be so weird?

            I was content for the moment, I really did not mind being alone and I was glad to see everyone getting along.

            When we were finally done eating, I stood on my stump that way I was looking down at everyone. “Alright guys, please pay attention!” I called to them all, it took a second but the eventually calmed down and looked back up at me.

            I smiled and looked at them all, “Alright, first order of business, I  hope you all went and talked to your sprites about your powers and stuff because we are not going to talk about them in a group like this, to many at once.” I explained, there were a couple smiles from the small crowd but even more people shifting uncomfortable.

            I gave that a second to sink in then spoke again, “Alright, order two! Daily meeting are going to become a thing, if Jason allows it we are all going to meet here for dinner each night. We will take turns supplying dinner for the group by order of entry of the game so Rylan!” I called to him, he looked up at me with bored eyes, “Your next,” I said sternly and he just nodded.

            Everyone agreed and I kept the meeting going. Everyone had a good time describing their worlds to the crowd.

            Brittany raised her hand (old habits die hard I guess) and I sort of laughed and called on her, “Okay Brittany shoot!” I said.

            She stood up and smiled, “Guys, you have to come to my world, there is a spa! Like a legit Greek spa and it is freaking bomb.” She stated and sat back down. I frowned a little, that was so unfair I just have rocks.

            Brandon stood next, his lanky form rising and he pushed his glasses back into place, “If anyone knows how to make a fucking map that would be a fantastic because this whole maze thing is killing me,” He sighed and Nikki giggled a bit and looked at Lofton.

            “You know how to make a map right? Wasn’t that your dad’s thing?” She asked and Lofton nodded quietly, I swear she only talked to me and Nikki sometimes.

            Brandon mouthed thank you to her and sat back down.

            We chittered for a while longer before dispersing again, Mark and I traveled back together per usual. We dropped everyone off happily and when we finally got to Mark’s world he stopped me, before I could go.

            “Hey, I don’t know about Nikki but there was something off with Rylan.” He said with a concerned look.

            My eyes widened, “How can you even tell, he never says a word?” I asked and Mark just kind of laughed,

            “I just kind of know, but like I said, did you notice anything wrong with Nikki?” He asked again and I thought. She would not want me to tell him there was but I trusted Mark.

            I scrunched my face a little, “Yeah, she was being really weird…more bubbly than usual which means she was trying to hide something…Nikki can be sensitive though she just probably took something Rylan said wrong I would not worry about it.” I told him dismissively and after a clear moment of contemplation, Mark gave up.

            I said my goodbyes again but he grabbed my arm, “Hey, stay for dinner! I am sort of lonely around here…the company would definitely be appreciated,” He said, eye pleading.

            I did not think too long, I mean…it was Mark. “Okay! Sure,” I smiled and his face brightened.

-

            We went back to his place after that and I sat on a bar stool while Mark cooked, he made spaghetti. It was simple but it had been a while since I ate it and Mark made really awesome spaghetti.

            We chatted for a while about small things, what our consorts were like and how weird sprites were. I asked him about how he was so close to Rylan and I was surprised when I got a really short response.

            “He had a rough start; he stayed at our house a lot. Nothing to incredible,” He replied quickly and gave me a looking asking me not ask again. At least not right now.

            I respected his wish and dropped the topic but after that we started into some more serious stuff, “So your mom is okay? That’s good. Both of my parents got knocked cold from an imp and they are fine but asleep for now.” He told me.

            I wanted to sigh in relief, I had been terrified to ask if they were okay or not but he gave me the answer, I let out a little laugh, “At least they are okay, a few peoples parents aren’t around.” I sighed and he nodded.

            We picked at our food in silence for a moment, the mood had kind of dampened, Mark could not stand the silence though,

            “I imaged our first dinner alone to be a bit more pleasant,” He said with a frown and I nearly spit the water I was drinking out.

            I coughed for a second and he stared at me confused, and then laughed. “You are so easy to fluster, your cheeks are already bright red,” He pointed out and my blush only deepened.

            “You did that on purpose.” I accused him and he only gave me a coy smile,

            “You will never know,” Mark told me.

-

            We finished dinner and I went to help him with the dishes, he quickly shooed me off though, “I got this! You should get home, it is sort of late and I am sure your mom is getting worried.” He said and I just nodded.

            I can’t really explain it but I felt like I should say something else but my tongue felt like it grew three sizes and the atmosphere got really tense.

            Mark looked lost too as he watched me for a moment, his eyebrows brought closer in frustration, his mouth moved in little O’s a few times like he was about to say something but each time he changed his find. Finally he just shook his head and smiled, “Goodnight Bryson, be careful okay?” He said it more like a question than a statement.

            Finally I seemed to regain my speech ability back, “Yeah, of course…un have a nice evening.” I said and quickly turned on my heel and left, leaving Mark a little dumfounded.

            When I got back to my world I groaned loudly, “Really smooth Bryson,” I told myself…crushes were hard, even when the world had ended.


	5. Chapter 5

**Nikki**

            I looked at my best friend, Lofton, with a sideway glance. Her long wavy brown hair pulled out of her face by a spare hair tie. She brought her small hands up to fix the glasses that were askew on her narrow nose that really contrasted with the rest of her round face. She straightened from the thermostat in her house, her skinny form all planes and angles and she finally returned my stare with her own hazel eyes.

            “What?” She asked and I sighed,

            “We have been here for like what, three weeks now? And your house still has no heating…it is not like I mind having you and Gram in my house I just thought we would make some progress by now.” I told her and she just sighed.

            “Yeah this whole situation has been shitty in every sense of the word,” Lofton grumbled and muttered what sounded like ‘shitty ice world, freezing all the shitty pipes’ before plopping down beside me.

            I laughed a little and she glared, “How did you get so lucky anyway? Nice warm pretty world with sweet little consorts! It is just not fair.” She groaned and I shrugged.

            “Well at least your quest is simple; I have to figure out how to restart time! My poor consorts won’t grow any and nothing new can grow either, if I don’t hurry they could die.” I informed her

            She only scoffed at me, “I have to create a whole like system from nothing! In the middle of an eternal winter,” Lofton challenged and for a moment all we did was stare, waiting on the other to try to keep going.

            After all of five seconds we both bust into incredulous laughter. We laughed for what felt like forever at the sheer absurdity of what we had both just said, if someone would have told me this is what we were going to be doing a month ago I would have laughed, just like that. We were both cut off by the ding of Lofton’s wrist phone.

            She had somehow managed to merge her phone into her left wrist, she told me it had been a painful process and she had been scared to lose her wrist but it the end it had works. She looked at it and sighed, standing up.

            “What’s going on?” I asked and she shrugged a little.

            “Remember when you volunteered me to help Brandon like the second day we were here? Well he just texted me and asked if I would come and help start that map today,” She said in an almost grudging tone.

            I know it was nothing against Brandon, but more against hanging around people she did not really know. We stood from our spots on the floor and I shivered a bit, we had gotten temporary heaters into Lofton’s home but that did not take all of the chill away.

            Lofton made sure she had all her stuff and gear ready, including her weapon which happened to be an actual wand. As a joke a few years ago I gave her my Harry Potter replica wand, I guess when she put it in her strife specibus it seemed like a good idea.

            She called to her brother upstairs, “Graham! Stay in the house I will be back with food later tonight okay?” She shouted and without waiting for an answer we left.

-

A few gates later we entered Brandon’s world. The place was literately a massive maze; the sky was almost black as if we were inside somewhere. He had no sky like me or really anyone else, which sort of sucked. I did not know Brandon all that well, he was more of Bryson’s friend but according to the olive vine Bryson and Mark were spending the day working with Bryson’s powers.

I smiled to myself at the thought, they had been spending a lot of time together, according to Bryson it was purely friendship but he could not always hide the blush when I asked him anything about Mark.

My internal musings were cut short as I felt Lofton punch my side gently. I jumped a bit, not realizing I had drifted off. Brandon was standing in front of us, a grateful if not somewhat exhausted smile on his face.

“Thank goodness you guys are here! I have tried so hard to make little maps but they get really messy really fast and then I get lost. Honestly I am afraid to go much farther than the few paths I have memorized,” He explained with a bit of a nervous laugh.

I just sort of laughed, waiting for Lofton to say something since this was kind of her whole escapade. She of course said nothing and we all stood in very awkward silence for at least three minutes.

Realizing that she was not going to say a word I sighed then smiled apologetically at Brandon. “It is no problem! Not like there is much else to do for right now.” I said and he returned the gesture with his own friendly laugh.

“Well, you said Lofton knew how to make a map?” He asked genuine curiosity in his eyes.

Lofton finally seemed to come out of her mute state, “Yeah, my dad made maps in the Army before he retired.” She explained and I gave her a friendly nudge,

“That is how our dads met, my dad needed a map and he made it!” I shared and Brandon nodded, impressed.

Lofton just nodded and shifted her feet; I looked around the world again. Currently we were in a small clearing with only one path leading forward, there were mirrors spread throughout the walls and the stone was smoothed and polished to perfection.

I looked back at Brandon, he had a broom with blades at the end hanging off his long torso, he had always been tall for as long as I could remember. He had long fussy brown, blonde hair that almost touched his shoulders with square glasses. He had a narrow face and was actually really thin, he was sorta geeky but it suited him.

Brandon clapped his hands together, “Well, this is the center point as far as I can tell; if we take two lefts from here we get to my house. If we take a right then skip the next six turns and turn right we get to the first village,” He explained, “That is about all I can remember off the top of my head and my quest is to actually figure out a path for my consorts to follow so they can like trade with one another.” He finished.

I nodded in understanding and Lofton brightened a bit, “Hey, our quests are kinda similar!” She said with a small smile and he raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue.

She continued, “I have to make a system of transport on my ice world between the few villages I have,” She groaned and Brandon laughed.

“Life sure is a bitch,” He muttered and we all nodded in agreement. He let us all mull that over for a minute before he spoke again, “Well let’s get this show on the road!”

-

            We were probably there about an hour before we got attacked for the first time. We had walked at least two miles and mapped out a nice little bit away from the first village. Brandon and Lofton had been laughing over some joke when I felt something prick at the back of my mind.

            I stopped walking for a moment, causing the other two to stop as well, Brandon looked confused, “You alright?” He asked.

            I did not respond for a moment, I just felt off. In my nervous fever I pulled my sword out and nodded my head to the both of them. Lofton pulled out her wands and Brandon his broom, we all looked around, waiting.

            We sat for a while in silence, listening for the rustle of little imps but nothing could be heard. Both Brandon and Lofton went to relax but I held up my hand again.

            Sure enough not five second later, a very large imp jumped out.

            It was tall to say the least, at least nine feet, it had wicked razor teeth and it was so massive it took up the entire corridor, so that meant no running around it. I flinched at bit as it let out a loud growl. Brandon held his broom in front of him like a staff, ready to strike.

            Lofton had fallen behind me, not because she was scared but because she and I had already figured out she was a ranged fighter. I felt my heart rate go up and I took a deep breath, holding the blade in front of me.

            The imp took on earth shuddering step toward us and suddenly Brandon launched, he let out a bit of a war cry and his broom staff thing collided with the imp’s knees. It screamed and swung a huge fist down at Brandon, who had luckily rolled out of the way just in time.

            I did not give it time to pursue him any further as I charged forward, screaming so it would look at me. It turned around and threw out a fist that almost took my head off as I ducked below it. I kept my pace up and really regretted that I had not run more in school, because my stamina was not all that amazing. I managed to land a good slash on the things leg, making it fall to a knee. My only mistake was now both Brandon and I were out of range but Lofton was its target now.

            To her credit she had jumped into action quickly, sending shocking energy through her wand and hitting the imp right in the chest, causing to stagger dramatically. It was up again quickly and roaring with rage and frustration, she darted back and forth avoiding slash after slash of its long, curving claws.

            I felt panic rise in my chest and I saw her take a glance of one claw on her arm, she winced but continued to throw spell after spell. I darted forward again and this time, without thinking, I threw myself on to its back. It did not notice me either until I dug my sword in to stay on.

            Almost immediately it tried to throw itself against the wall but it did not get far because Brandon was once again making it stagger from the beating its legs were receiving. I heard Brandon curse, and assumed one of his toes got stepped on.

            I tried to pull to sword from its shoulder but it had dug in to deep, “Shit!” I yelled, the others did not realize that I was stuck and they were aiming to topple the beast over. It was too busy trying to reach me to really fight Lofton and Brandon back so I braced for impact as I felt my equilibrium start to fail as it fell.

            The fall felt like it was in slow motion, and my sword finally came free right before we hit the ground. In a last minute attempt I tried to throw myself off but the imp came down, both of us landing back first facing the sky, except his back was crushing my foot underneath. I gasped out but wasted no time stabbing it in the next and within seconds it exploded into grist.

            I sat there panting as Lofton rushed over and Brandon was not far behind. Both of them all smiled because it was actually a lot of grist seeing that that was a larger imp. I smiled along but as soon as I went to get up my smile faltered, pain shot up through my foot and I winced.

            Lofton’s eyes grew wide, “Oh gosh Nikki your foot!” She exclaimed and before I could protest she was taking off my shoe carefully to assess the damage. Brandon stood behind her looking concerned and guilty; he must feel a little at fault seeing that this was his world.

            I gave him a reassuring smiled but had to bite my lip hard because at that very moment Lofton had tried to touch my foot. “Shit,” She muttered and I looked down at her and gasped a bit.

            It was not horrible by any means, but the entire foot was red and swollen with two of my toes pointing in awkward ways. Least it was not the first time I broke a toe. I glanced up at her and smiled, trying to calm her down, “Lofton chill, it is not that bad.” I told her and Brandon nodded in agreement but he still looked concerned.

            She shook her head, “Let me try something,” She said more of a command than a question. I sighed and scrunched my face in pain again as she laid her hands on my foot.

            Lofton closed her eyes in concentration, and suddenly it was like a cool flow was washing over my foot and it felt really, really nice. It was cold but not icy and all of the pain was gone after a few minuets. When the feeling was gone I looked back and the toes were all right again, and nothing was swollen!

            Brandon gaped at her, and so did I, “How in the hell did you do that?” Brandon asked incredulously and I nodded along. Lofton only gaped at us, she stared from us to her hands and back at us several times before she finally came to a conclusion.

            “I guess this is my power…” She said with an almost amazed tone and I let out a little surprised laugh.

            “Well buddy, you got the nice end of the stick for sure, windy powers and healing,” I said amazed and she smiled a little sheepishly, she had discovered her small ability to shift the breeze around her minimally.

            Brandon laughed along with me, “Yeah that for sure! I have no idea what my power even means let alone what I can do!” He exclaimed and I raised an eyebrow at him.

            “What were you again,” I asked politely, we had stood up now and were making out way back to the gate, it was almost lunch time and while my foot was healed it still hurt to put pressure on it.

            Brandon, who was now helping me whenever I stumbled, nodded, “Oh uh, I am a ‘Mage of Void’,” He said making little air quotes.

            I hissed a little, “Yeah that sounds kinda complicated,” I said and he only nodded.

            Lofton tossed her head back toward us, “When has life not been complicated these last few weeks?” She asked with a laugh and we joined her eagerly.

-

            We got to lunch late, well last actually. My limp had slowed us down a good bit and when we finally did roll in Bryson and Brittany jumped to their feet and ran over to me. Kailee sat behind with fearful eyes and the rest of the group looked at us with concerned faces.

            I raised my arms quickly and smiled, showing I was okay, “It is alright everyone! No serious damage thanks to Lofton, who has found out she had healing powers.” I explained and everyone clapped a little.

            For this past month or so we had all slowly been discovering out powers one at a time. Of course mine were already very clear to me, I could not control those visions yet nor could I understand them but I did understand how to time travel.

            I had no told anyone yet but I only did quick little travels, in fear of messing something up! I know Rylan heard whispers of death but he did not share much other than that.

            Kailee and Brittany had a knack for knowing what people were feeling. Kailee more so on how they felt about other people and Brittany just how they felt in general. Drew was also a healer, but she could heal much more than people, plants too! Cade, Jason, Bryson, Brandon and Mimi had not yet quiet figured out what their powers meant, though some of them had ideas.

            So Lofton’s discovery was a welcome one and she happily recounted the tale of the battle to the group, with Brandon’s help of course, while I sat back and ate my turkey sandwich.

            Bryson glanced back at me and mouthed ‘you okay?’. I nodded and gave him another smile to put him at ease.

            I had gotten pretty comfortable when I heard someone walk up behind me and I bristled, it could only be Rylan. I glanced back and unfortunately, I confirmed my suspicions. He had approached slowly and was now standing over me and looking down with that weird unreadable expression on his.

            “Can I help you?” I asked curtly, he made it clear that we were not friends and I was still pretty upset about the blackmail, but I had kept his secrete all the same.

            Rylan sighed in an annoyed tone, “Can I not ask if you are alright or not?” He mumbled and I let out a sarcastic huff.

            “No, because we both know you don’t actually care.” I informed him.

            He let out his own fake laughter but it came with a, “You think your funny, hu?”

            I gave him the most pageant winning smile I could muster, “I don’t think, I know,” I said in a sweet tone. Deciding I did not want to speak to him I stood up to walk away, but he gripped my wrist.

            I glared back at him, “What the hell?” I demanded.

            “Wait!” He exclaimed a little but when he went to open his mouth, another voice silenced him.

            “You alright Nikki?” Cade asked walking up to us, he obviously noticed Rylan’s grip on my wrist and glared at the other guy. Rylan let go and I quickly stepped toward Cade, my skin shivered the way it always did when I got near Cade now, I had not forgotten that first vision.

            “What is going on?” Cade asked, eyes not leaving Rylan’s. Rylan did not even attempt to explain so I spoke up,

            “He was trying to ask me something,” I said, making sure to say it as neutrally as possible. While I did not like Rylan I did not need him and Cade at each other’s throats, because honestly Cade was not someone you wanted to fight with.

            He was tall and built, with almost platinum blonde hair cut short because I am pretty sure if it grew out it would just be a curly mess. He had blue eyes with a really intense gaze. He was a pretty light and happy guy but he had anger issues too, which was something that I say again, did not want to deal with.

            Cade only glared for a little while longer and to my surprise, Rylan did not even flinch. They only held each other’s intense gaze until I finally could not stand it. I swear you could feel the tension in the air and I got the feeling that this was about more than me, they anger in both of their eyes was evident and I felt a chill run down my spine. I stepped right in between then and thank god Byson finally noticed something was wrong and came over, Mark in tow.

            Mark took his stance in front of Rylan, laying a hand on his arm and turning him away. Rylan took one more glance in between me and Cade again before complying with Mark and leaving the clearing.

            I glared at Cade, I was thankful he cared but he still did they whole ‘puffing out my manly chest, come at me bro’ thing, which was not cool. We did not have time for stuff like that. “Hey, thanks for coming to my rescue and all but there was no need to get all macho man,” I said shortly.

            He gave a huff of disbelief, “You cannot tell me that he does not make your skin crawl,” He demanded.

            Bryson and I both nodded. Bryson spoke up, “Yeah he is freaky but that does not mean you have to almost tear his head off!” Byson said firmly, but also letting a nervous laugh creep in at the end of the statement.

            I decided to keep my mouth shut, Cade would argue with anything I said anyway. We were friends but we were not too close I guess, Bryson was the one who brought him in and he had sorta dated my cousin and it was really awkward when we first meet. We had bonded over mutual interest sure, but we clashed a lot. He and I were both willing to argue with brick walls.

            Cade sighed, an annoyed look still clear of his face, “Sorry,” he finally conceded.

            Bryson just gave him an approving grin and they went and had one of their ‘bro moments’. I swear before Mark, Bryson and Cade had been sort of inseparable but here lately they had started to grow a bit apart. Cade and Jason were spending a lot more time together than they were.

            Brittany had wandered over by now, seeing without her our quartet would not be complete. They four of us were kind of a clique of our own, Lofton went to a different school so she did not get to hang out with us that much, all of this of course referring to before the world got torn apart by meteors.

            “Everything okay?” She asked, and we all glanced at her. I just smiled and nodded but the other two gave a sort of disapproving glance in my direction. Since when were we mad at me?

            I raised my eyebrows and Bryson spoke first, “What was that really about?” He asked, and I just frowned.

            “What?” I asked.

            Cade groaned and Brittany just continued to look confused, “He means why were you even talking to Rylan in the first place, and why in the hell he grabbed you?” Cade asked shortly.

            I took a second to reply, careful to not let my hesitation show on my face, I did not want to tell them, I know it was dumb but I felt like telling them that Rylan had any actual concern with my was sort of odd, so I thought on my feet, “He was asking me to come by his world sometime this week to see how the plague on his world is spreading. I said no because I was busy helping Lofton and went to walk away and he was desperate, so he tried to stop me,” I explained carefully.

            All three of them stared for a little bit longer before they seemed to accept my story, Cade’s eyes staring a bit harder for a little bit longer, I really did not understand what his problem was today, but finally we all agreed to return back to lunch and thankfully it finished without out further disaster.

-

            I really had thought I had escaped but as Lofton and I were about to head back to her world, Bryson stopped me. I opened my mouth to speak but he held a hand up and looked at Lofton, “Do you mind going and helping Brittany with her consorts? I was supposed to help her but I have to talk to Nikki about something,” He asked politely.

            Being the best friend she was, she glanced at me for approval and I nodded, I had a feeling I did not want her around for this conversation. She gave us both a quick goodbye and left with Brittany.

            I looked back at Bryson and he just sighed, “Come on, lets head back to your place,” He said.

            I was not exactly in the mood to protest so that was exactly what we did.

            Upon arriving Bellasprite greeted us both enthusiastically and purred with all her might while rubbing against us. I smiled at her and she then left to do whatever it was that Sprites did.

            Bryson sat on one of the old couches in my main living room and I said on the other side of the coffee table, “So what is this about?” I asked.

            Bryson once again let out a deep, exhausted sigh, “It is about why Cade really was about to go at Rylan today,” He told me, now I was intrigued.

            “Yeah I was a little confused; he never really gets defensive like that, over me at least,” I said with a little laughed and Bryson only nodded in agreement.

            Bryson leaned back a little before he started his explanation. “Well, about a week ago Cade came to my world while Mark and Rylan were helping me out. It was just normal power/consort stuff you know? Well we split up to explore a bit and Cade went with Rylan,” He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts then he continued, “Well about three hours later we all meet up again and Cade was just seething anger,” He said, his confusion clear.

            “I tried to ask him about it after Rylan and Mark left, because honestly Rylan looked as angry as I had ever seen him too,” Bryson exclaimed and I got a little shocked, I knew Rylan got annoyed but I had yet to see him angry. “Well Cade would not tell me a single thing, only that Rylan was bad and we needed to stay away from him. He refused to say anything other than that then he left,” He finished.

            I let the story sink in for a moment; I mulled it over in my head several times, what could they have said to each other.

            For the next hour neither Bryson or I could think of an explanation, we were only left with more questions.

-

            After Bryson left Lofton came back with Graham, her younger brother went off into the spare bedroom where he had sort of taken up residence while Lofton’s house was unlivable. I made us all ramen noodles because I was actually a terrible cook.

            When Lofton and I laid down for sleep, I sighed deeply, keeping my visions and powers from her was taking its toll on me, and she could tell I was hiding something. She had been tenser when we spoke than usual and I am sure my little chat with Bryson had not helped.

            My back was turned to her and I wanted to talk to her, to tell her all my worries but she did not need that right now, no one did. Unfortunately I am pretty sure she could read my mind.

            “Nikki,” She spoke softly, “What is the matter? You are not being you here lately,” She said turning to face me.

            I did not move, I only contemplated for a moment, I was not ready to tell her everything but I needed some support, “Lofton…” I whispered, “What if you knew that something bad was going to happen to someone, but you couldn’t do anything about it?” I asked her, careful with my words.

            I could almost feel her confusion but she answered, “Why could you do nothing? If someone is in danger, then they have the right to know…even if it may seem like the bad choice because what happens if you were wrong? Then they would walk into that danger willingly and then you would blame yourself,” She explained.

            I finally rolled over and started at her, a thousand thought running now at her advice, “Thank,” I said to her and I could faintly see her smile through the light coming through the window.

            “No problem,” She said and rolled back to sleep, I guess she was satisfied with that small confident.

            I turned on my back, looking at the flashing fire alarm on my celling; I thought about the day, about my powers, a little about my parents…just the normal stuff. When my mind turned to the conflict of the day thought, I had a little bit of an epiphany.

            Ryan had known who was going to kill Cade, maybe he had told him? But who would it be that would make Cade angry but not say anything? Once again I was only more confused that I had been before.

            All this power to see but not yet understand…


	6. Chapter 6

**Bryson**

            It was one of our ‘team activity’ days. Nikki and I had gotten together with everyone else and decided at least once every two weeks we should split off into two teams, and help each other one by one with worlds to make progress. This was the third team activity day we had had since we got here so that means…we had been here almost two months now? I did not really know, time was sort of flying now.

            We had all set into a grove at this point; all of us had pretty sweet gear in my opinion. My knife was plated with the cadmium alloy I had gotten from Mimi’s planet and it could cut virtually anything! Of course we had also reinforced out clothing making fighting easier and stuff, and it was not armor by any means but just out cloths, only fire resistant, and waterproof, and unable to be ripped. It was all pretty badass.

            I was currently standing in front of my mirror, only in a pair of shorts because I had just gotten out of the shower, I could see where my muscles had begun to finally come in. I had been scared they would never grow, I had always been too skinny but not now, now I was lean and honestly I think I looked pretty hot.

            I slipped on a random T-shirt, gray in this case, and put an unbuttoned flannel over the top of it and headed out into my kitchen where Me’mesprite and mom were at the table, drinking coffee. I said my good mornings earning a smile from the both of them, today mom would go meet with a couple of the other parents, mainly Mark’s mom and dad and Brittany’s nana. They had sort of formed their own little crew to keep each other company; adults need other adults I guess.

            I ate some food that we had at this point begun to alchemize as well; it tasted the same it was just a little tricky to figure out. So I grabbed a piece of green toast and made my way out.

            Today my team was at Cade’s world and its members were Me, Cade, Kailee, Brittany, Drew and Jason. It was sort of an odd group for Kailee seeing that she mainly clung to Nikki because they were related and she was two years younger than the rest of us, but I liked her well enough.

            I traveled alone to Cade’s world because Mark was one, not of my team, and two, he had already left. I had gotten so used to jumping through gates it was crazy! I had finally found two more of mine of my planet which had been a long and grueling process like apparently everything was in this entire adventure.

All of these discoveries had put us all on edge.

Enough of my internal monologue though, I finally came to Cade’s world which was in short, unpleasant.

It was a whole lot like Rylan’s but it was not sick, and way more modern. It was like the world was stuck in a 1920’s New York City at midnight, but all the time. There were tons of sky scrapers and a dirty, muddy river flowing right through the center of the city. The buildings were dirty and wrong but consorts rushed in a busy manner all about, tossing a look over their shoulder every now and again, they were afraid. I walked a little down a street and I could smell the heavy air of cigarette smoke coming from some of the homes. I had not known that little pink frog things could smoke but I guess they could in the Land of Cards and Chance.

It was seedy and Cade thrived here.

In the distance I could hear the cackle of his sprite, well Jokersprite. For as long as I could remember Cade loved and had an obsession with the Joker from batman, so it was only natural that when the time came to prototype something he chose his Joker keychain. He put his dog in for the second prototyping so every now and again Jokersprite would bark and he also had little dog ears, which was really weird.

Finally I found Cade at his home base; Brittany was already there along with Kailee who was sitting awkwardly on the curb of the street. Cade and Brittany sat on the steps in front of his house and they both smiled brightly when I came around. Kailee gave me a grin and I made sure to return the smile in full, at least trying to comfort her.

Kailee was a short person to start with, she was at least five inches shorter than any one of us, and she had really thick medium brown hair that was currently tied into a neat knot on the top of her head. Her eyes were the run of the mill brown and she had freckles plastered all over her face and arms, her face was short and round unlike Nikki’s, who’s was long and round. On the other hand, while she was so much shorter than the rest of us she was probably the most fit because she actually did sports before the world ended like cross country.

“How is it going?” Cade asked and I shrugged.

“Did not want to get up and get moving today,” I sighed, it was true. I had sorta wanted to stay in.

Brittany laughed in agreement, “Right? Why do we do these whole group activity things anyway? We see each other every day,” She asked me and I just shook my head a little.

“Because,” I began, “If we did not we would not solve our quests as fast, plus it is good bonding. Sure we see each other every day but we do not like, bond,” I finished.

Kailee finally added into the conversation, “I like the group activates! They always have something exciting happen, like last time when we were on Mimi’s world Brandon fell into one of her cadmium rivers and we had to save him.” She smiled and we all laughed a little.

“That was funny,” Cade added, he had also been part of that group. Brittany and I had heard the story and I really wish I could have been there. Just the image of Brandon flailing around in the liquid metal was enough to make me laugh.

Finally after some waiting Drew and Jason showed up to the party. Jason and Cade exchanged happy greeting while I gave Drew a huge hug. We did not see each other as much anymore and it was sort of weird because after all she was my sister.

Cade went to walk back into his home but we meet with a jab in the gut from Jokersprite, who had been hiding around the corner.

We all laughed for a moment before finally Brittany the turned to Cade, he pony tail swishing as she did, “So sir, what is the mission?” She asked.

Cade ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up in the process, little bits of blond hung around his face as he thought of how to word what he wanted us to do, “Well, there is this group of guys, they are not consorts in fact they look kinda like the derseites. They have a whole mob thing going on and they terrorize all my consorts and make them pay for protection and just all your other typical mob stuff,” He explained.

I forgot to mention the whole dream world thing; you see when we dream now we all went to one of two moons that orbited our worlds.

One of them was called Prospit; it was all made of gold and all of the people living there, which happened to be a lot, were these little white things that looked almost human but they had hard shells instead of skin.

The other moon was Derse. It was a whole lot darker than Prospit, with purple building instead of gold and while the shape of the people living on it was the same, they were black instead of white.

Both moons had a ruling monarchy that was constantly at ‘war’ with one another, really it was just a bunch of slander in the papers. Each of us went to a moon when we dreamed and I went to Derse, along with Cade, Brittany, Lofton, Mimi, Brandon, and Rylan. The rest were naturally Prospit dreamers.

I am not sure how it worked on Prospit, but we were sort of a kind of royalty of our own on Derse not that we all interacted much, mostly we just kinda floated around and listened to the weird little political games what went on.

Eventually according to our sprites we would have to figure out who would win the war between them and it was gonna be a big deal and blah blah blah…it was sort of boring really.

Not like it was all that important at all!

“So, there are evil derseites of your planet…that strange I thought only consorts were on planets,” I observed and Cade gave a sarcastic laugh in agreement.

“Shows how much we know,” He muttered.

Brittany was starting to look really enthusiastic though, her eyes brightened, “So we get to be kinda like cops right, working on taking down the crooks?” She asked.

“That sounds fun!” Drew interjected.

Kailee did not say anything, but she was looking expectantly at Cade as well.

He laughed and nodded his head, but before they could get too giddy he held up a hand stopping them, “Now first we have to find them!” he declared and while both visibly deflated, they still seemed excited.

I thought for a moment and gave him a sideways glance, “And how do we do that? Consorts don’t like, talk,” I reminded him.

Cade gave me a knowing look, “No they don’t, but with a special little device I made they do now!” He said, confidence dripping with the voicing of his achievement.

We all stared at him; mouths’ gaping with shock, Kailee was the first to speak.

“Well if you could share that little thing then I would really appreciate it that way I would know what the hell all my consorts are always yelling about, they can never seem to get along and that would help immensely,” She stated.

I raised my eyebrow at Kailee, as did everyone else and she blushed and seemed to shrink a bit. She was surprised she had thought out loud I suppose, Brittany saved her quickly almost as is she sensed her unease, “What is your land and quest exactly Kailee?” She asked.

Kailee stared down at her feet for a moment before looking back up at us, “Well it the Land of Bonds and Royalty, my denizen killed the royal family on my world so now I have to establish a new line and honestly it would not be so hard if I could understand them,” She sighed.

Cade nodded in understanding but knowing him, he did not actually care much. It was nothing against Kailee but he tended to be a little self-focused and today was technically about him.

Cade clapped his hands together, drawing the attention back to him, “Well let’s get this show on the road!”

-

            Interrogating the little guys was not all that fun. We asked question after question but the only answers we seemed to get where nervous looks over shoulders or obviously false information. The consorts were terrified and that was painfully obvious.

            So we had to resort to less pleasant tactics. Cade would take out his club, which was his weapon of choice, and hold it intimidatingly with Jason at his side, who had a rifle at his hip. While we knew he would never hurt the little guys they did not know and quickly caved.

            We took a while to gather a solid lead, different info coming from way to many directions but eventually we got a tip that one of the said crew was gonna be at a small bar that night. We all made calls to tell the others that we were gonna be late for dinner and not to worry.

            I had personally sent Mark a message about it and he sent back a picture of him and Nikki frowning, ‘sadden’ by the fact I would be absent. I laughed and was glad they were getting along. I thought they were all supposed to be in Rylan’s world today so I was almost tankful that we were going to miss the first few moments of their company, people always smelled bad after coming out of ‘The Land of Entropy and Plague’.

            Cade had advised we split off into two teams, one infiltration team a few to go in and fight while the other team, the support team hid in the shadows and wait to ambush anyone who would interfere.

            I was on the support team while Cade, Brittany, and Jason went in to get the mob guy to talk. Drew and Kailee sat on either side of me, they were talking about something but I was not really paying any mind to them at the moment because I was too busy trying my powers again.

            I could feel myself getting closer to getting them to do something. I would reach out with mind and I could ‘feel’ other peoples like the consorts and my friends but I could not do anything else. This was infuriating! What could I do when I did not even know how to work my own powers? At least I was not the only one struggling, Mark had no idea what to do with his either.

            In my distraction I had totally missed that something was going on inside the building. There was lots of banging around and suddenly the door burst open.

            Out ran none other than a derseite, it was short and had a funny hat on and its face was contorted in panic, hot on its heels was the infiltration team with Cade leading, club drawn back. Brittany was right behind with a giant pan in her hands ready to hit someone. Jason had backed away and was currently trying to line up a good shot with his rifle.

            Drew jumped into action first, pulling out her pistol lighting quick and firing off a few shots, not aiming to hurt only to scare of course. Kailee was doing something with her strings that she used as a weapon, she picked a red one from a weird device on her belt that had multiple colors of string and without a word it slithered over to the derseite.

            The derseite pulled out his own gun, it was just a small revolver but he was aiming to harm. He shot at what he perceived the weakest link, which happened to him be Brittany but he was sadly mistaken.

            With the bang of the gun Brittany had raised her pan and the bullet bounced off harmlessly only the impact making her grip loosen for a brief second, when she regained the posture she was pissed.

            She flew forward and brought the pan down on the things head before he could move out of the way and there was a resounding ‘clang’. It was almost like watching a cartoon as the derseite stumbled, looking dazed and after a moment it fell face first into the ground.

            Kailee’s string wound themselves around the little guys legs, torso, and hands. Jason moved forward and took the gun away while also finding hidden knives. The thing was ready for a fight but we were too good of a match. I am sure the black queen would be upset we did this to one of her people but I still did not even get why they were on Cade’s world in the first place.

            Cade gave us all grateful smiles as we calmed down after the quick high from the battle. “Thanks guys, seriously I have not been able to catch these guys for weeks now.” He said and we all just gave various ‘your welcomes’ and nods.

            “Well, we should go eat now right? It was Lofton’s turn for dinner so it is probably spaghetti, which right now sounds really awesome,” Drew said, and we all agreed.

-

            Upon our arrival it was clear that everyone was in high spirits. In face all of their blushing faces and goofy smiled lead me to believe that they were a little more than happy from a good days work. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw a bottle of something in Lofton’s hand.

            “What’s up guys?” Mark said cheerfully, he had the faintest of red on his cheeks but he was obviously not as far gone as the rest of those gathered. Knowing him he had probably had a sip or two then let the others have the rest, not wanting to do something embarrassing.

            Even Nikki, who while I had known her had never drunk anything, was taking a swig. She and Lofton giggling over something on of them had said. Nikki looked up and her eyes meet Kailee’s and she seemed to get serious for a moment and she frowned.

            Kailee was staring at her wide eyed and also there was a hint of anger there as well, what was that all about? Nikki stood up and carefully made her way to Kailee, sure she was drunk but she did surprisingly well walking.

            Kailee was about to say something but Nikki only shook her head, he eyes pleading with Kailee, “I know,” She said in a hushed tone, “It had just been a rough week and turns out Brandon figured out how to alchemize this stuff,” She explained but Kailee was still dissatisfied and without another word she whirled back toward the gate, leaving Nikki looking sad and disappointed.

            Before I could ask her what was wrong she noticed me finally and gave me a bright smile, all the negative emotion disappearing from her face. “What’s up buddy?” She giggled and I was baffled, how could her mood swing that quickly.

            “Looks like you guys are having fun,” Cade said walking up from behind me, and Nikki made an ‘ummhumm’ noise.

            Needless to say Nikki did not allow me the chance to question her any further about what Kailee had been mad about and the others threw themselves into the drinking as well. I finally gave in as well, in the past two months our lives had been taken away and turned upside down and one night of needless fun sounded perfect.

            Lofton become a very loud person when she drank and this was obviously the first time she had drank before because every few moments she would ask, “is this normal?” about how she was feeling or acting. It made for a really funny joke to tell her no, because then she freaked out.

            Mark did not get drunk, only happily tipsy and giggly and also just a little touchy. Maybe it was me being touchy but I don’t think it really mattered; we were side by side the whole night.

            I had seen both Drew and Jason intoxicated before so it was no surprise they left a little because they were tired and Drew wanted to go and make sure our Grandma was okay.

            Mimi and Brandon were a blast, they made all the jokes and had everyone rolling and it was fantastic until Mimi threw up.

            Nikki was the oddest of us all, she was obviously drunk, but not. While she was drinking at the same rate but she still seemed cool and had all her wits, the only tells being her giggle fits and also singing a lot.

            To my shock Rylan stuck around as well, he sat across from everyone and took a drink or two and did not really say anything, looser.

            Cade did not really say anything either, but every now and again I would see him shook Rylan a dirty glance, I guess Mark noticed as well because he got up to leave to take Rylan home. In my altered state I did not think as I grabbed his wrist.

            “What?” He asked, concerned about why I had stopped him.

            I grinned, “Come here,” I whispered and Mark raised an eyebrow confused but complied and moved his face closer.

            “I got a secret for you,” I smiled, and put my hand around my mouth to whisper in his ear.

            Mark fell right in as he moved his cheek toward me, and I sprung my trap.

            Instead of a secret he was rewarded with a sloppy kiss on the cheek, he seemed stunned as I pulled away laughing.

            He had a blush on his face and the group had gone silent with a small giggle every now and again.

            Mark gaped like a fish but managed to give me a laugh and finally left with Rylan in tow, who was not exactly walking in a straight line.

            The rest of the night was fun, lots of laughs and near what we assumed was midnight everyone went home to rest in their beds.

-

            When morning came I had a slight headache, I thanked the powers that may be that my world was not sunny because right now it was not what I wanted to see. I got a laugh from my mom and a disapproving look from Me’mesprite when I walked into the kitchen but they both paid me no more mind as I got a glass of water and sipped it while leaning on a counter.

            There was a knock at my front door and I quirked my eyebrows as I raised my head from the glass. “Come in!” My mother called out.

            Mark walked in, he smiled brightly at my mother and Me’mesprite and when he saw me, his smile turned into a bit of a blush. I was confused, why was he blushing. “What’s up?” I asked, usually there was some king of warning before he came over.

            He shifted one foot to the other trying to hide his discomfort. My mind was racing, what had happened that had gotten Mark so bothered?

            “Can I talk to you?” He asked quickly and I nodded, putting down my glass of water and I lead us back to my room, away from prying ears.

            “Now what is the matter?” I asked again.

            He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, gathering his thoughts I am sure. He opened his mouth to speak a couple of times but his train of thought was easily derailed as he looked at everything in the room except me.

            I got a little irritated but I did not want to push him, “Mark what is it?” I asked again, pleading to him almost.

            Mark released a sigh of defeat, and finally said what was on his mind, “You kissed me last night,” He squirmed.

            It was my turn to be uncomfortable, by own face becoming flushed with the blood rushing to it, “Um, what?” I gaped.

            Mark let out a little nervous laugh, “On the cheek, as I was leaving…you kissed me,” He said a little more firmly.

            I really had no idea what to say and honestly I was kind of upset I did not remember that. I searched my brain on what to say next, “Well…I am sorry, I know it is not a good excuse but I was drunk,” I sighed.

            Mark shook his head quickly, looking suddenly panicked, “No! Oh no! I am not angry at all Bryson. I just thought you would want to know,” He said quickly, waving any kind of negativity away.

            I was still at a loss for words, so he was not upset? Why was it a big deal then? And I was still upset I could not remember then entire ordeal. I sighed, “Oh, well thanks for telling me,” I said awkwardly.

            He shuffled a little nervously, the air was thick with tension and everything just felt awkward. I felt like we had been transported into some bad eighty’s movie and this was the part we were supposed to admit out feeling and then ride off into the sunset on a lawn mower…

            Unfortunately that is not how the real world works.

            Mark seemed to finally get fed up with the silence so he stood up, “Well, I promised Rylan that we would spend some time together today, I will see you at dinner right?” He asked, smile bright on his face.

            I felt my heard flood with relief, at least one of us could actually function. “Yeah definitely! Same time as usual?” I asked.

            “Always,” I confirmed and with one last goodbye he left the room.

            I just started at the door for a while, eyes fixed on the spot he had once been. I was not a socially impaired person and moments like that made me so upset, Mark and I were friends and I could not even form a coherent sentence when odd topic came up! It was absolutely ridiculous.

            I groaned and threw myself into my pillows, letting my face sink into them as I contemplated. I wish I could just tell him, which would fix everything because I was not dumb, I knew he at least felt something back! Only there was still that little seed of doubt of what if?

            I turned over on to my back so now I was facing the celling, I thought about everything in a detached way for a moment and soon I was laughing.

            Here I was worried about my potential relationship while we were literately fighting things to survive every day, out world that we grew up in was gone forever and one day soon we were going to become gods it we made it.

            I could not help but laugh.

            Our lives were the definition of chaos.


	7. Chapter 7

**Nikki**

            “I better get an explanation right now as to why you thought it was okay to drink last night!” Kailee demanded me.

            Currently I was standing in the middle of my living room with the worst headache I had had in years in my bath robe, with fuzzy bunny slippers on my feet. Kailee was standing in front of me with all 5’0 ft. of her seething in fury.

            It took me a moment to process what she had said, my brain still fuzzy. Finally after about a minute of silence the implication on what she had said finally hit me. I felt my heart drop into my stomach and a heavy sense of guilt fluttered right into my heart, “Kailee…I,” I began but she stooped me.

            “Nikki you know you can’t do that! I can believe after all you went through that you would even think to try! I mean it is not like you even drank for fun you did it because you’re stressed and admit it, depressed.” She shouted at me, I could hear Lofton’s foot step behind me.

            I frowned, her words hitting me hard, “Stop it Kailee, your mad and you know that is not true,” I said calmly which seemed to only infuriate her.

            Kailee shook her head, “No, you have every right to be sad Nikki, but you cannot ignore your problems and if you’re not going to tell me what’s got you messed up at least tell her!” She said pointing viciously at Lofton, who was not staring at me with confusion and worry. When she was pointed out she frowned, now I would have to tell her something.

            “Kailee, you need to go. You’re angry and you’re going to say something you will regret later,” I sighed, pleading to her with my eyes. Now was not the time for this conversation.

            She started at me a few more moments, her fury still evident in her eyes but slowly I watched it fade, leaving only a certain detached sadness in them. “Okay, but please don’t try do handle this alone aright? Whatever this is.” She said finally and turned to leave.

            I closed the door softly behind her, gathering my thoughts for a moment. Lofton was going to have questions and I was not ready to answer them right now. I could feel her approach me and put a hand on my shoulder, trying to comfort me and I laughed a little.

            “It is alright Lofton, I am okay…” I said and turned my head toward her, giving a soft smile. Her eyes were filled with concern and a lot of confusion but she did not say anything for a long time. She looked lost and confused as I felt and suddenly an entirely new wave of guilt hit me, I hated that I made her feel this way.

            “Look, I know something is wrong but Nikki, you can tell me. You are not alone,” She said to me and hugged me softly.

            At that moment I wanted to cry but I only returned her hug and finally came up with something to tell her without revealing all of my true grievances. I pulled her away gently and sat her on the couch nearest to us, I took a deep breath, and this would still be hard to talk about.

            “Look, Kailee was mad because I resulted to a very destructive old habit last night, I don’t really want to talk about it because it is a very sore spot for me but I did because…well I miss my parents Lofton. I know your missing yours too and so is everyone else so that’s why I have been so silent about it,” I said. It was not a lie by any means, in fact it was almost the entire truth except that I left out all the parts about my vision and powers and past trauma.

            Her gaze changed, filling with an understanding look. We talked for a little while longer after that discussing the things that had been bothering her as well, I had managed to draw her attention away from me and I was thankful.

            By the end of the conversation I had formulated what I was going to do today. I needed to get things off my chest and there was only one person it was safe to tell.

-

            A couple hours and I was coming through the gate into Rylan’s world. My nose was immediately assaulted with the smell of death, around me there were puddles of foul smelling liquid on the road and the few consorts that were around ran when they saw me. I walked a little ways for a while, unsure if Rylan was even here or not.

            My skin felt like it was crawling, everything felt dirty and sick but I guess that was because it was, Rylan’s world was riddled with a plague not unlike the bubonic plague back on Earth. Except this one thankfully did not infect humans as far as we knew. The poor little blue salamanders would get big buboes of their necks and arms and they would die soon after. It was sad and all of us felt for them.

            We were not really sure if Rylan cared but he worked on his quest a lot so maybe somewhere in his heart he was not completely stoic. Speaking of him he was nowhere in sight.

            I had turned into what was like a square in the city, a big fountain stood bare filled with green rotten sewage and I sighed, why was I here anyway? I wanted to talk to him but he may not even let me stay…it was not like we had gotten along before right? Well he did ask if I was okay and as far as I knew he did not really do that to everyone else so maybe he hated me slightly less?

            There were so many questions when it came to him.

            I sat on the edge of the fountain and drew my sword, laying it across my lap and staring at it. It was gleaming and polished because I did not really use it much, I preferred not to fight directly but I was not afraid too. I ran a finger down the groove in the middle idly when a voice nearly made me fall into the murky water behind me.

            “You know, showing up to someone’s home unannounced is really, really rude Nicole,” Rylan said stepping out of the shadows of an ally on the other side of the plaza. He was wearing a rather tight black coat that had little bits of mud and dirt smeared all over it as well as his dark jeans and boots.

            I quirked an eyebrow because as he approached I could see the sheen of sweat covering his forehead and his normally tousled hair was not even more wild, sticking up in way to many different directions.

            I was too busy examining him to notice him stopping in front of me and looking at me with a confused expression, “Why do you do you do that?” He asked his voice clearly annoyed.

            I came back to reality and it took me a moment to realize he had said something to me, “What?” I asked.

            He groaned a little, “You stare at people in the most uninhibited way, like you just stare. Has no one ever told you that was rude?” He asked.

            I scoffed, who was he to tell me I was being rude? He was the one who refused to get along with anyone, “I stare at people because I am curious, and I was wondering why you were so dirty, and yes I know it is rude but I don’t really care,” I said shortly

            He seemed shocked by my answer, his normally emotionless face twisting and for one in his life, Rylan did not know what to say, so instead he changed the topic, “Why are you here anyway,” He asked running a hand to tame is dark brown hair, arms crossed over his chest.

            It was my turn to be a bit at a loss, “Well…” I began, embarrassed. I hated that he was the only one who had the answers I needed and the only one who knew all my secrets save for a few. “I…I needed to talk about my vision. You have similar ones and I don’t need anyone worrying about me.” I stated carefully, each word clear and purposeful but void of emotion, “You are the only one who knows and I know that you won’t worry about me,” I said finally.

            A smug look crossed his face and I wanted to punch him, so bad, I had never wanted to punch someone as bad as I wanted to punch Rylan in that moment right there.

            “So…you need me?” He asked, satisfaction dripping from his words.

            ‘ _You can do this Nikki, you can swallow your pride’_ I told myself carefully and I did exactly that, “Yes,” Was all I told him.

            Rylan looked almost upset that I had not tried to deny it, and that made me smile in turn, I was not as immature as he thought I was.

            “Okay then, what do you want to talk about?” He asked, sitting next to me on the fountain.

            I contemplated my first question for a moment, decided on what to ask right now, “Have you heard anything else?” I settled and leaned back on my hands, watching him.

            Rylan frowned a little but looked otherwise unbothered, “Yeah, I hear stuff a lot but it never really happens, I think I am hearing like things that could happen,” He said slowly obviously taking time on his words.

            I cocked my head to the side, “Like alternate versions?” I asked a little further but he only gave me a sharp look.

            “This is about what your problems not mine,” He reminded me and I sighed.

            “You just don’t want to talk about yourself,” I told him.

            “Exactly”

            “You suck,”

            “You’re annoying,” He concluded.

            I stood up and groaned, I walked a few steps from him but stopped. I could not let him chase me off just because he was being an ass.

            I looked back at him and just kept a stoic face, “Why do you feel the need to push people away from you?” I asked.

            He seemed frustrated as well, not by the look on his face, his face was always calm. No you could tell by the clench of his fist and the slight shift in posture, “Why do you psychoanalyze everything?” He asked in an almost lazy tone.

            I then realized that I was not going to get a solid answer to that, only more sarcasm.

            I finally quit my pacing and sat back down. I looked over at him and he was waiting on me to speak, “Fine then, I will stop prying.” I conceded and thought back to my vision, “I need to know who the other person in the vision was Rylan, I have this feeling that it is getting closer and I have to do something.” I said seriously.

            His expression did not change save for her eyebrows furrowing together slightly; the change was so slight many would not notice but I was used to searching for such minute changes.

            “I don’t know, I had an idea when you showed me it but that theory went to hell a few weeks ago, I have not thought about it since,” Rylan said.

            I studied him for a moment; his finger tapped the rock slowly but, forcefully? I looked at his eyes, which were ever unchanging and I had a weird feeling in my gut, he was lying.

            “Please, don’t lie about this. And don’t try to say you are not because I am not an idiot,” I told him, my annoyance beginning to build, why could he not tell me! This was someone’s life on the lines.

            He shook his head, “I told you a long time ago, I am not going to accuse anyone.” Rylan said firmly.

            I wanted to yell in frustration, “I have spent week now watching Cade, and everyone to make sure that no one has problems but the vision keep happening! Which I could only guess means that it is still going to happen. Now the only person he is even sort of mad at is-“ I cut myself off. I stopped my mouth from finishing the sentence and it was like fireworks had gone off in my mind.

            Rylan was the one in the vision.

            I stood as fast as I could and put a few feet between us, he visibly tensed and stood as well, “Nicole,” He said calmly holding his hands up a peaceful gesture.

            “No, stop.” I said firmly, I wanted to pull my sword out and demand answers but I knew one on one that Rylan would probably be the victor so I had to keep this calm.

            It was hard to stay calm while my mind was reeling, it all made sense! He dodged and avoided my question because he did not want to reveal that he was the accused. This made me feel even worse about the growing hatred between the two.

            “I am only going to ask once, what happened on Bryson’s world. What could have possibly happened between you two to make you want to kill him?” I demanded.

            Rylan, with his hands still in the air, took another step forward. He seemed to flinch as I took another step back. “Look, I know. I have not given you reason to believe anything I say, but I need you to know that I have no intention of killing Cade. Yes he is rude and annoying and arrogant but that does not mean I am going to kill the guy!” He said tensely.

            He was right, I had no reason to believe him at all, but I did not want to condemn him…I searched my mind for a solution. I had to tell someone! I bit my lip in frustration. This all went zero to hundred in a blink of an eye.

            We stood in silence for a moment, he made no more move and I knew I technically had him in a tight spot…if I left right now I could tell someone, maybe even Cade. He was afraid and I knew fear made people weird so maybe this could be easier…

            “I won’t tell Cade,” I said finally.

            His face flooded in relief but I held up my own hand, “But we are going to see Bryson, if you don’t come with me right now everyone is going to know instead of just him,”

-

**Bryson**

            I had not expected any guests today, let alone Nikki with Rylan in tow.

            Nikki came in unannounced as usual and I did not mind that much until I saw Rylan lurking behind her. “Umm…Nikki what’s going on?” I asked tensely.

            Nikki only held up her hand and waved outside. She wanted me to come with them so I complied, what on this world would the two of them be here for? Together?

            We walked a long ways before we finally stopped. I had no idea Nikki knew my world so well but she took us deep into the woods away from the gate where anyone could come in. During the trek Rylan kept avoiding eye contact with me and giving weird, nervous glances at the time player in front of us.

            I tried to pick up some clue as to why we were here; Nikki was dressed in her casual attire, a fitted T-shirt and skinny jeans. Her hair was still neat and smooth as usual but Rylan had dried sweat covering him and hard mud smudged all over his leather jacket. They had not been together when he had gotten all that so what could this be about?!

            Finally after thirty minutes of silence Nicole seemed to be satisfied with the distance, which happened to be a good mile and a half.

            She stopped abruptly and gave Rylan a sharp glance, “Start explaining, right now or I will.” She said, voice seething in anger but also confusion.

            I was so lost on what was going on so I just looked at Rylan, who was not almost cowering under her glare and I wanted to laugh. He could stare down Cade while he was seething but when he was being vocally attacked by someone like Nikki, who was not very intimidating, he squirmed.

            He opened his mouth a few times to speak, but would close it again deciding against what he was going to say.

            Nikki groaned in anger, “Fine! I will tell him.” She said shortly but he threw his hands in the air, stepping in between us as if not seeing each other would stop her.

            “No!” He almost shouted, “I…I don’t want Mark dragged into this okay,” He said looking over his shoulder at me.

            I was hesitant to agree but a look at the female in front of him made me nod slowly.

            He stepped back a little and looked at me, he jaw tightening as he clenched his teeth, “When this all started, Nicole-“

            “Wait! Stop!” Nikki shouted and she actually covered his mouth with her hand. A bright blush burned on her face. Rylan’s own face contorted in confusion as he looked down at her but made no attempt to escape.

            I was getting annoyed at this point, “Please tell me what it is you need to tell me. This is getting really irritating,” I sighed.

            Nikki sighed in defeat, “Okay, I will let Rylan continue but you have to know, I have discovered more about my powers. I have visions and I can share them with people,” She said quickly.

            My jaw gaped in shock but she did not give me time to speak, “Now please do not ask right now, any questions should be saved for the end!” She said sternly.

            I was so thrown that I only nodded in agreement.

            “Can I speak now?” Rylan snapped at her but a sharp glance made him sigh in defeat.

            “As I was saying, when this was all getting started Nicole accidently showed me a vision. In that vision there were two people fighting and my powers let me know that one of them died.” He began, he shifted uncomfortably for a moment but Rylan was not dumb. He knew he had to tell the story whole.

            “I told Nicole that someone died but I did not tell her who. Honestly I already knew who it was but it did not make any sense so I did not say anything,” Rylan told me.

            I raised an eyebrow, “Who were the people in the vison?” I asked, a sense of dread settling in my stomach.

            “Cade was the one that died…and I killed him,” The doom player finished.

            I don’t think there is a word for the rush of emotions that hit me all at once, most of all I was confused. Since when did all there prophetic things start happening and what had Nikki not told me? Why would Cade even fight Rylan let alone piss him off enough to make him want to kill him? I also felt hot anger, how could he even think about killing one of our friends! Not only think about but actually do it.

            Before my mind could process my actions I had my knife drawn and pressed hard to his throat.

            I could vaguely hear Nikki in the background yelling, no pleading for me to calm down and listen but my anger was red hot. We may not be as close anymore but Cade was my friend and I was not going to let him threaten him.

            “You have one minuet to explain before I kill you right here, right now,” I told him in a low voice.

            Rylan’s eyes were wide with shock but he did not look afraid. His hands were above his head in surrender but I could see him toying with a bracelet on his wrist, I knew from Mark that he kept his shield on said bracelet only compacted in a tiny square that passed off easily as a charm.

            “Don’t even think of fighting me, I will kill you before you have to opportunity,” I told him and pressed the knife a little harder to prove my point.

            Nikki was fidgeting, she moved quickly and nervous. She had wanted my thoughts but I don’t think she expected me to react this severely.

            Rylan gulped, the movement in his Adams apple made the knife nick him slightly but he did not flinch, “Okay,” He said slowly, he gathered his thoughts, “I can only say that I have no intention on killing Cade, we have our differences but I would not kill him,” He said keeping his voice even.

            Nikki scoffed a bit, “Then why do I keep seeing it!” She demanded.

            Rylan gave her a hopeless shrug, “I don’t know! I hear people die all the time but they don’t, so maybe that is it?” He attempted to suggest.

            I did not buy it, I knew Rylan was bad news from the start and all this had just proved my point! I drew back slightly, while I did not trust him at all I had finally calmed a bit and realized even if he still had the thought to kill Cade killing him would solve nothing.

            Keeping my knife raised as I released he brought a hand to his now slightly bleeding neck, he wiped at the blood but only smeared it a bit, I saw Nikki cringe a bit but none of us said a word for a moment.

            I needed more information, “What did you say to Cade that day on my world,” I said more of a command than a question.

            Rylan took in a sharp breath and looked at me with expressionless eyes, “He made me promise not to tell anyone,” he said.

            I frowned, normally after everything that was just revealed I would not believe him but Cade refused to tell me as well. I knew I could probably pry the information from him somehow but…something made me think that was not a good idea…

            In fact I felt like this whole conversation needed to be over. This was all too much for one day and I needed to speak to Nikki alone about her powers, she owed some explanations as well.

            I glanced over at her and she had the same tired look on her own face, I gave her a nod and she just shifted her gaze from me. I looked back at Rylan who was now looking at me expectantly.

            “You can go, but from now on you are not allowed to be alone with Cade at any given point in time. Do not talk to him unless it is absolutely required and you won’t tell anyone about this. We all have too many problems to worry about let alone dealing with this,” I told him.

            He seemed to be in thought for a moment before nodding slowly and walking away, throwing one more glace behind him as he walked away into the trees.

            I turned my gaze back to my friend, she was staring at the spot in the trees where Rylan had disappeared, an unreadable expression on her face, she looked confused and a little angry but there was also another look in her eyes.

            I coughed a bit making her turn her attention toward myself. I sighed, “Will you please tell me about the power stuff now?” I asked.

            She took a big breath then exhaled with a smile, “Gladly,” She said.

-

            “So let me get this straight, you get random visons of things that could possibly happen, weird intuitive feeling and you can hop around in time?” I asked Nikki, the confusion evident in my voice.

            She only nodded slowly, “That is pretty much it yeah,” She said with a hesitant smile.

            “And you did not think it was a good idea to tell anyone any of this?” I asked, a little sarcastically.

            She let out a sigh of frustration, “Look, this has been stressful enough for me I did not want to add to any ones problems,” She said.

            I shook my head, “Nikki we are supposed to worry about you! You can’t take on stuff like this by yourself; it is like your future self said. You need you friends,” I concluded, she had told me the odd story about the dying clone and it left me a little unsettled.

            Nikki stared for a moment, before she jumped up from her spot in the grass and gave me a tight hug. “I know,” She muttered thought my shirt.

            I hugged her back and smiled gently, “We can figure this out okay? Both your problem and mine and soon we will have figured it all out!” I said with a little laugh, it sounded too optimistic for me but right now, she needed that.

            She pulled back from me; hand still on my shoulders as she looked me in the eyes, “You really think so?” She asked.

            I nodded quickly, “Yeah I do,” I confirmed.

            We both smiled at each other and with that happy note, we traveled home to face the chose that was to come in the following days.


End file.
